IPL 2024: “Genuinely feel it is going to hold back the development of all-rounders” – Rohit Sharma on impact player rule

Mumbai Indians’ former captain Rohit Sharma feels the impact player rule is holding back the development of all-rounders in the IPL. The impact player was incorporated in the 2023 season and since then the depth in batting as well as bowling has given advantage to all the 10 teams.

The rule gives the option to all teams to bring in a 12th player at any stage of the innings. Mostly, the team batting first, adds a bowler in their bowling innings whereas the team bowling first, adds a batter in the second innings. But the team can also change their strategy depending on the match situation.

“I genuinely feel it is going to hold back the development of all-rounders because eventually cricket is played by 11 players, not 12. So I am not a big fan of the Impact player rule because you are taking out so much from the game just to make it a little more entertaining for the people around. But just the cricketing aspect of it, I feel guys like Washington Sundar, and Shivam Dube are not getting to bowl, which is not a good thing for us (India). Not sure what you can do about it, but I am not a fan of it,” said Rohit on Club Prairie Fire podcast.

“It is entertaining though as there are 12 players to select from and whoever that Impact player is, can see how the game is going and change it on what you need, and how the pitch is behaving. If you bat well and don’t lose too many wickets, can add a bowler which gives an option of having 6-7 bowlers. You don’t need that extra batter because a lot of the teams upfront are batting well and you hardly see No.7 or 8 coming to bat.”

Meanwhile, the IPL 2024 has seen some high-scoring matches with batters taking the bowlers to the cleaners. SRH has breached the 275-mark on two occasions whereas KKR posted 272 against Delhi Capitals.

“It’s not bad bowling. It’s just batters are coming out with a free mindset and smacking it all over the park. They are not worried about getting out and that’s how T20 cricket should be played these days. You’ve got 7-8 batters now and most of the time you realize that your No. 6 and 7 bat only 5-7 balls so the top four need to just go out there and play freely,” said Rohit on high-scoring encounters.

“Coming to assessing the conditions and all that, if you are in trouble, you are in trouble anyway, so might as well take those chances upfront and put the bowler under pressure straight away,” he added.

Mumbai Indians will face Punjab Kings on Thursday at Mullanpur.