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Former Test wicketkeeper Matthew Wade, recalled by Australia as a batsman, has seemingly been given the important job of managing the ball during the Ashes.
Matthew Wade no longer has the keeping gloves but his hands are bearing a big responsibility at Edgbaston, where the recalled batsman appears to have taken a leading role in looking after the ball.
David Warner was in charge of Australia's ball management prior to last year's Test at Cape Town, where Cameron Bancroft was given the job and a piece of sandpaper led to unprecedented sanctions for both men plus Steve Smith.
Warner and Bancroft were shifted into the slips cordon during their Test comeback in Birmingham, where the duo stood either side of Smith at the start of England's first innings.
Instead it was Wade who spent plenty of time shining the Dukes on Friday, along with Travis Head.
It's unclear whether the change is a case of optics or the dry hands of Wade, who is playing his first Test in almost two years.
"Because I don't want to go out in the field yet," Warner said in last week's intra-squad match, when asked why he was at first slip.
"I don't want to run around. I want to save my energy. I'm saving my legs."
Shining one side of the new ball helps achieve natural swing, while reverse-swing can come into the equation once one side is roughed up.
Australia's nefarious ploy in Cape Town was to work on the ball with sandpaper but a pitch or centre-wicket block can legally rough up one side of the ball naturally, depending on how abrasive conditions are.
It's also vital the ball remains dry, hence why teams generally look for the person who sweats as little as possible to be in charge of managing it.
"The people who shine the ball are the ones who don't sweat, it's as simple as that," Josh Hazlewood said last year.
"The bowlers sweat a lot when they bowl and you don't want it getting wet, you want to keep it dry and shine it."
The importance of ball management was somewhat understated throughout international cricket prior to the sandpaper scandal.
It is now being widely scrutinised as part of the International Cricket Council's crackdown on ball-tampering.
