Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin has defended the infamous impact player rule despite criticism from Indian captain Rohit Sharma and former captain Virat Kohli. The duo had their concern over the rule as the bowlers faced the brunt in IPL 2024 after batters played with more freedom and teams broke the records for highest score in Indian Premier League (IPL) history. Ashwin who is a bowling all-rounder has supported the rule citing the strategies involved.
"Why I think the Impact Player rule is not so bad is because it gives a little more value for strategy. The other side of that argument is it doesn't encourage all-rounders. But no one is stopping them. "In this generation, they don't do it [batters bowling and vice-versa]. It's not like they're discouraged because of the Impact Player rule. Look at Venkatesh Iyer, he's currently rocking for Lancashire. There's an opportunity for innovation and it makes the game fairer." Ashwin said on Kris Srikkanth's YouTube show Cheeky Cheeka.
Defending his stance, the 37-year-old talked about the Qualifier 2 of IPL 2024 played between Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
"Sunrisers [Hyderabad] brought in Shahbaz Ahmed as an Impact Player [vs Rajasthan Royals, after hitting 175 for 9 batting first]; he went on to become a match-winner. When dew has the potential to make games one-sided, teams bowling second get an extra option as a counter. If you're batting second, you can tactically make a substitution by offloading the extra bowler for a batter. Games are tighter, an extra player is getting to play. Barring Kolkata or Mumbai, where scores skyrocketed, they haven't been a drastic change elsewhere. Like at Punjab Kings' home venue [Mullanpur], they were all 160-170 games," the Tamil Nadu-born spinner added.
Impact Player rule helping youngsters
Ashwin even cited the names of the players who have benefitted after the rule came into existence. Some of the players that made their way to the national team is a testimony of how impact player rule is not all doom and gloom after its introduction in the 2023 season of IPL.
"Shahbaz Ahmed, Shivam Dube most importantly, Dhruv Jurel… If not for the Impact Player rule, he may have never gotten the chance. So the emergence of a lot of players has happened. I'm not saying that's the only way for players to emerge, but it's not so bad." Ashwin concluded.
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