IPL Announces Introduction Of Tactical 'Substitute' From 2023 Season

The Indian Premier League on Friday announced that from the upcoming season (IPL  2023) each team will be allowed a substitute player who "will be able to take a more active part in the match". The announcement was made on Twitter. The concept of tactical substitutes was trialled by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in the domestic T20 competition, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, this season.

"Time for a New season  Time for a New rule  How big an "impact" will the substitute player have this edition of the #TATAIPL," IPL captioned its tweet.

Time for a New season 😃

Time for a New rule 😎

How big an "impact" will the substitute player have this edition of the #TATAIPL 🤔 pic.twitter.com/19mNntUcUW

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) December 2, 2022

The 2022 edition of the IPL was won by newcomers Gujarat Titans. A mini auction is scheduled to take place on December 23 on Kochi ahead of the next season.

The details of the new rule are yet to come out. In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, teams were asked to name four substitutes at the time of toss and out of them one could be used as an "Impact Player". The Impact Player could replace any players from the starting XI at any point before the end of the 14th over of either innings, and was allowed to bat and bowl his full quota of overs.

The tactical scope of the system was vast and there was no real restrictions on roles substitutes could play. He could replace a batter who had already been dismissed and still get to bat, as long as team used only 11 batters in total. Or else, he could replace a bowler who had already delivered a few overs and still get to bowl his full four-overs.

The Impact Player rule offers greater tactical scope than other substitution systems that have been used previously.

In the Supersub system used previously in ODIs during 2005 and 2006, the substitute's role coincided with that of player he replaced, he could not bat if the original player was already dismissed and could only bowl remaining overs of replaced player's quota.

In Big Bash League (BBL) held in Australia, teams can substitute a member of their starting XI at the ten-over mark in a full T20 game of the first innings. Also, the player replaced cannot have batted already or bowled more than one over out of his quota.

(With ANI inputs)