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[Saba Sports News] Rohit Sharma expressed his reservations about the ‘Impact Player’ rule currently implemented in the IPL, which was first introduced during the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament in 2022-23. Speaking on the Club Prairie Fire Podcast alongside Adam Gilchrist and Michael Vaughan, the Indian captain criticized the rule for its potential negative effects on the development of allrounders.
Rohit explained, “I generally feel that it is going to hold back [allrounders] because eventually, cricket is played by 11 players, not 12. I’m not a big fan of the impact player. You are taking out so much from the game just to make it a little entertaining for the people around. But if you look [at] genuinely just the cricketing aspect of it… guys like Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube are not getting to bowl, which for us [India team] is not a good thing.”
The discussion comes as India approaches the T20 World Cup, with squad selection on the horizon. The challenge for Rohit is to balance a team where top-order batters lack bowling capabilities. He is relying on players like Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja to fill the allrounder slots.
Dube’s recent performances highlight the issue, as he took two wickets and scored 124 runs at a strike rate of 158.97 in the last T20I series before the IPL. Despite his form, the ‘Impact Substitute’ rule has limited his opportunities to bowl in the IPL. Similarly, Washington Sundar has bowled only three overs across six games for Sunrisers Hyderabad.
The rule poses a significant threat to Dube’s selection for the World Cup squad, particularly given his prowess against spin, which is crucial on the Caribbean’s slower pitches.
Despite the rule’s intent to add flexibility, Rohit remains skeptical: “I don’t know what you can do about it, but I’m not a fan of it honestly speaking. Because there’s obviously 12 players for you to select from and whoever that impact player is, you can see how the game is going and change it later depending on what you need, what pitch is behaving. If you bat well, if you don’t lose wickets, you can add another bowler so it gives you an option of having six or seven bowlers. You don’t need that extra batter because a lot of the teams actually upfront are batting well, and then you hardly see Nos. 7 or 8 coming to bat.”