Rohit Sharma, the former skipper of Mumbai Indians, has expressed his disapproval of the IPL’s ‘Impact Player’ rule, stating that it adversely affects the prospects of all-rounders from the country.
The Impact Player rule, introduced in IPL 2023, allows teams to substitute a 12th player from their squad at any point in the game, replacing one of the originally named XI players for the rest of the match. While this rule has been beneficial for most teams, it has led to a decrease in opportunities for all-rounders.
During an episode of the Club Prairie Fire Podcast, hosted by Adam Gilchrist alongside Michael Vaughan, known as The Prof, and Ollie, former English captain and current Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma expressed concerns about the Impact Player rule. He emphasized that it might prioritize entertainment over the development of players, particularly affecting all-rounders like Washington Sundar and Shivam Dube. According to Rohit, limiting the chances for these players to bowl could hinder their progress, which wouldn’t align with the goals of the Indian team.
“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.
“It is entertaining because there are 12 players, whoever the impact player is, you can change a player later seeing how the game goes, depending on how the pitch is behaving.”
“If you bat well, don’t lose wickets, you can add another bowler, you have 6-7 bowlers and you don’t need an extra batter if teams are batting well upfront. You hardly see a no.7 or 8 coming in to bat,” he further said.
Rohit further defended the bowlers who’ve been taking a beating lately, suggesting that it’s not necessarily poor bowling but rather the aggressive mindset of the batsmen that’s causing the onslaught. He noted that these days, lower-order batsmen hardly get a chance to settle in, which means the pressure is squarely on the top four to make a big impact right from the start.
“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,” the Indian skipper added.
Comments 1