Team India’s veteran Spinner Ravi Ashwin feels that the impact player rules should stay in IPL. Ravi Ashwin who was with the Rajasthan Royals in the previous edition of IPL feels that the impact player rule brings out tactical strategy in the game. Ashwin shared his views on Kris Srikanth’s YouTube channel in which he Spoke about the perks of having an impact player.
The rule was introduced in the 2023 IPL season and has received mixed reactions from the players, However the senior players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were not in favour of the rule as they feel that this rule will hamper the development of all rounders in Indian cricket.
The impact player rule was mostly used by teams in such a way that it boosted their batting line-up up to number 8 ,they used to replace an extra bowler with the batter to add impetus to their innings.
Ashwin however had a different perspective to the saga,the veteran spinner feels that no one is stopping all rounders to contribute with both bat and ball in the game,he cited an example of Venkatesh Iyer who has been performing superbly in the county championship.
“During the interaction on Srikanth’s YouTube channel Ashwin commented on the fact that he does not find any negative aspect towards the Impact Player Rules as it is offers more importance to strategies.” This is opposed by an argument where it does not support allrounders. However, they aren’t stopped.
“They never do this in their time- generation batters bowl, bowlers bat.” It can’t be blamed on Impact Player rule that dissuade..s them. Just take Venkatesh Iyer who seems to be pulling it off with ease at Lancashire at such an opportunity for innovation to make the game equitable.”
To further add more weightage in his opinion Ashwin Spoke about the talks of impact player rule favouring the chasing team Ashwin gave an example of qualifier two to clarify his views.
“SRH brought Shahbaz Ahmed in as an impact player (vs RR, after scoring 175 for 9 batting first) and he went ahead to win the match (with 3 for 23)” said Ashwin.
“When the dew has a power to make one-sided matches, this becomes an added option for teams that bowl second. And if you are batting second, then you can make a tactical exchange by taking out the subsequent bowler for another batter,” he avowed.
“There are tighter competitions, one additional player is playing. Except for Kolkata or Mumbai where runs went up crazily, elsewhere it hasn’t really changed much. Just like in all games played on Punjab Kings’ home ground were about 160-170” Ashwin concluded.