Mumbai Indians star opener Rohit Sharma recently opened about the 'impact player' rule in the IPL and stated that such rules are not beneficiary for Team India, especially ahead of the T20 World Cup. IPL 2024 will be concluded on May 26 and the marquee ICC event will kick-start from June 2, co-hosted by USA and the West Indies. Rohit stated that due to the 'impact player' rule, some renowned all-rounders are not getting a chance to bowl and this is going to hamper Team India in the long-run.
Rohit was a part of the podcast “Club Prairie Fire," co-hosted by former Australia wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist and former England Michael Vaughan.
“I am not a big fan of Impact sub rule. It is going to hold all rounders back, eventually cricket is played by 11 players not 12 players. You are taking out so much from game to make it entertaining for people around. If you look just from the cricketing aspect of it I feel guys like Shivam Dube and Washington Sundar aren't getting to bowl, which for us is not a good thing," said Rohit.
“I don't know what you can do about it. There are 12 players for you, it is entertaining, you can bring on the impact player after watching how the game is going, how the pitch is behaving. If you bat well and you don't lose wickets, you can add another bowler, it gives you an option of six or seven bowlers. You don't require that extra batter because a lot of teams are batting well up front and you hardly see a No 7 or No 8 coming to bat,” he added.
Replying to Rohit, Gilchrist said that "impact player" rule is a concern as the "integrity of cricket" is being compromised for the sake of entertainment.
“I think it has added something special. It's all built for spectators and for their entertainment. You are compromising the fundamental of the cricket. Why T20 was so entertaining, because you were not compromising with the integrity of cricket," said Gilchrist.
"It is 11 vs 11, same size field, the field restrictions are also the same. There was no gimmick needed. I think it is bit concerning. They showed the stats 250+ score in 2008-2023 IPL was only 2 times and this year IPL it's already 4 250+ scores. It's not bad bowling, it's just people coming free mindset & smacking all over the part. That's how T20 cricket played these days," he added.