Dasun Shanaka fined for ball tampering against India in Nagpur

Nothing is going well for the Sri Lanka team in Nagpur. After they failed to put up a competitive score in their first innings, Sri Lanka failed to restrict the Indian batsmen from scoring on Day 2. Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay’s 209-run partnership and Virat Kohli’s half-century helped India post a huge score of 312/2 at the end of the day.

Shanaka, who had struggled with the ball throughout the day, was later fined 75 percent of his match fee for breaching Level 2 of the ICC Code of Conduct in India’s first innings. According to the International Cricket Council, Shanaka was charged by match officials for "changing the condition of the ball", after he was caught picking the area near the seam of the ball on TV.

The incident occurred in the 50th over of the game and Shanaka admitted he tried to tamper with the ball to ICC match referee David Boon after the end of the bad day for Sri Lanka on the ground.

"These are early days in Dasun's career and I am sure this sanction will ensure he is more careful when maintaining the condition of the ball in the future," match referee Boon was quoted as saying in an ICC release.

The pacer, who got five wickets in the first Test in Kolkata, was also handed three demerit points for his offence. If the Sri Lankan bowler, within a 24-month period, reaches four or more demerit points then it will be converted into suspension points and he will be banned. 

Sri Lanka visited India to play a three-match Test series followed by three ODIs and the same number of T20Is. 

During the match, Shanaka was seen rubbing the ball which is looked like a usual trend for the bowlers but later, ICC found enough proof to handed him the fine.