Ravichandran Ashwin gave his opinion on the controversial Impact Player rule and backed the interesting innovation to continue in IPL 2025. The BCCI introduced the ruling in IPL 2024 after experimenting with it in the domestic Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy.
The Impact Player regulation has received a lot of criticism from players and IPL franchises. Big international players like Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Siraj have openly discussed the rule’s downsides.
While Rohit opposes the regulation since it discourages all-rounders from growing further, Siraj argues that the batsmen have grown extremely brave as a result of the rule, causing havoc for the bowlers.
On the other hand, Ashwin reckoned that the rule is not bad as it allows the strategies to develop. He also claimed that the allrounders are not stopped from performing under this rule. He also mentioned the example of Venkatesh Iyer, who is currently playing for Lancashire in the United Kingdom and doing well.
“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 allrounders. 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’.
Ashwin even gave an example of a match in IPL 2024, where the impact player actually made a huge impact. He picked Shahbaz Ahmed’s performance for SRH in Qualifier 2 of the IPL 2024.
“Sunrisers [Hyderabad] brought in Shahbaz Ahmed as an Impact Player [vs Rajasthan Royals, after scoring 175-9 batting first]; he went on to become a match-winner [with 3-23]. 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,” he added.
Ravichandran Ashwin says lots of players have played for India thanks to the Impact player rule
Ashwin argued that a number of players had moved up the ranks, even into the national team, as a result of the rule.
The 37-year-old also cited the names of players who have risen through the ranks as a result of the Impact Player Rule. He asserted that if the Impact Player rule had not existed, such athletes would not have had as many opportunities.
“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 reckoned.
Since the Impact Player rule was implemented, the role of allrounders has declined. Quality international allrounders receive a decent number of overs to bowl while rising allrounders such as Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar have little opportunity to demonstrate their abilities under this regulation.
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