BCCI open to discussions on IPL’s Impact Player rule after India captain Rohit Sharma’s take on it

Rohit Sharma. (Photo Source: BCCI/IPL)

In what can be called a revolutionary move, the Indian Premier League (IPL 2024) has introduced the ‘Impact Player’ rule ahead of the 2023 season. The rule was brought to inject more entertainment into the already peaked T20 league, but it received mixed reviews from the cricket fraternity, primarily negative.

Team India captain Rohit Sharma was the latest to criticize the rule that allows the substitution of players during the game. Highlighting the detrimental effects of the Impact Player rule on the development of all-rounders, Rohit said he was “not a big fan” of it. 

“I generally feel that it is going to hold back (all-rounders) because eventually cricket is played by 11 players, not 12 players. I’m not a big fan of Impact Player (rule). You are taking out so much from the game just to make it a little entertaining for the people,” said Rohit while speaking on the Club Prairie Fire Podcast with Adam Gilchrist and Michael Vaughan.

“But if you look (at) genuinely, just the cricketing aspect of it… I can give you so many examples — guys like Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube are not getting to bowl, which for us is not a good thing,” the veteran opener added.

Also Read: Rohit Sharma denies reports of T20 World Cup selection meeting

Rohit Sharma’s analysis makes sense with T20 World Cup fast approaching

With the rule drawing criticism from some quarters for some time now, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is open to reviewing it. In the same concern, IPL council chairman Arun Dhumal has said that he was open to discussion with all the stakeholders and that the ‘Impact player’ rule is not mandatory. Hence, if needed it can be worked upon or even scraped in future.

“Now that such an observation has been made, we will definitely look into it. We will discuss with all parties involved and then take a call,” IPL governing council chairman Arun Dhumal told The Telegraph on Friday.

“There are various pros and cons to any rule that is in place. We are open to any discussion once the season gets over… nothing is cast in stone about its implementation,” Dhumal said.

Also Read: Rohit Sharma concedes not being fan of Impact Player rule

Rohit Sharma‘s critical analysis comes in light of India gearing up to end their ICC trophy drought. The 2024 T20 World Cup is scheduled to take place in June, where the Impact Player Rule has nothing to do with it. Reports suggest that Hardik Pandya’s inclusion in the WC squad is yet to be finalised as he did not bowl his entire quota of four overs and was not as efficient as before.

Since the Impact Player rule is in place the Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper is allowed to seek options from outside. The same is the case with Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) Shivam Dube, who is tipped to replace Pandya in India’s middle order. The medium-pace all-rounder did not bowl a single over in this edition because of the rule which allowed CSK to play an extra specialist bowler.