Rohit Sharma has made his stance clear on the 'Impact Player' rule of Indian Premier League. Expressing serious reservations about the rule, the India captain has implied that it could be detrimental to Indian cricket. (Full Coverage | More Cricket News)
“I am not a big fan of the Impact Substitute 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 the game to make it entertaining for people around,” Rohit said on the podcast 'Club Prairie Fire'.
The Mumbai Indians opener added that the new rule is not helping the cause of Indian all-rounders like Shivam Dube and Washington Sundar. Sundar has hardly got game time for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2024 thus far. Dubey, who has made waves and is the highest run-getter for Chennai Super Kings as of now, is yet to bowl this season.
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“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.
"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,” Rohit elaborated.
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Australian cricket legend Adam Gilchrist, who is also a host of the podcast, strongly agreed with Rohit. Gilchrist felt the new rule is tampering with the integrity of the sport. "It’s all built for spectators and for their entertainment. You are compromising the fundamentals of cricket,” Gilchrist said.
“Why T20 was so entertaining, because you were not compromising with the integrity of cricket. 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,” the World Cup-winning Australia wicketkeeper-batter added.
