Mumbai Indians opener and ex-captain Rohit Sharma confessed his disapproval of the Impact Player Rule introduced in the IPL since the 2023 season.
This rule allows teams to substitute a player from a list of five named at the toss, aside from those in the Playing XI, at any stage of the game. While teams have effectively used it during challenging situations, Rohit believes it diminishes the role of all-rounders.
During his appearance on the Club Prairie Fire Podcast, Rohit Sharma specifically mentioned Washington Sundar and Shivam Dube as two players who have been adversely affected by the Impact Player Rule.
“I genuinely feel it is going to hold back the development of all-rounders because eventually cricket is played by 11 players, not 12. So I am not a big fan of the Impact player rule because you are taking out so much from the game just to make it a little more entertaining for the people around.”
“But just the cricketing aspect of it, I feel guys like Washington Sundar, and Shivam Dube are not getting to bowl, which is not a good thing for us (India). Not sure what you can do about it, but I am not a fan of it,” said Rohit.
He added:
“It is entertaining though as there are 12 players to select from and whoever that Impact player is, can see how the game is going and change it on what you need, and how the pitch is behaving.”
“If you bat well and don’t lose too many wickets, can add a bowler which gives an option of having 6-7 bowlers. You don’t need that extra batter because a lot of the teams upfront are batting well and you hardly see No.7 or 8 coming to bat.”
Dube only bowled occasionally between 2019 and 2022, but he hasn’t bowled a single over since the implementation of the Impact Player rule last year. Many other experts have criticized the rule, highlighting its benefits for teams with inadequate auction strategies and squad composition.
“It’s not bad bowling, it’s just batters are coming out with a free mindset” – Rohit Sharma’s thoughts on the high-scoring IPL 2024
Rohit Sharma supported the bowlers despite the high scores in the 2024 IPL season, attributing it mostly to aggressive batting from the top order. The top three highest team totals in IPL history have been recorded in the first half of this season, with SRH scoring 287 and 277, and KKR reaching 272.
“It’s not bad bowling. It’s just batters are coming out with a free mindset and smacking it all over the park. They are not worried about getting out and that’s how T20 cricket should be played these days.”
“You’ve got 7-8 batters now and most of the time you realize that your No. 6 and 7 bat only 5-7 balls so the top four need to just go out there and play freely,” said Rohit.
“Coming to assessing the conditions and all that, if you are in trouble, you are in trouble anyway, so might as well take those chances upfront and put the bowler under pressure straight away,” he added.
The recent SRH-RCB match witnessed the highest combined match aggregate in T20Is, totaling 549 runs, surpassing the 523 runs scored in the SRH-MI game just days earlier.
Besides the aggressive approach from the batsmen, the Impact Player Rule has also contributed to strengthening batting lineups, encouraging a more attacking batting style.
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