Veteran India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has shared his views on the Impact Player rule, which was introduced in the Indian Premier League 2023. The Impact Player rule allows both teams to name five substitute players each in addition to their playing XI at the toss.

After the match starts, captains of both teams can nominate any one of these five substitutes to replace one of the players in the starting XI during any of the natural breaks of the match. These include the start of an innings, at the end of an over, at the fall of a wicket or when a batter retires.

The teams took some time to fully take advantage of the rule, but it did impact the importance of all-rounders in the playing XI. After two years, the rule came under scrutiny as several teams failed to take advantage of it. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma and a few others pointed out that the rule prevented the all-rounders' development in the cash-rich league.

However, ace spinner Ashwin, who played for Rajasthan Royals last season, has different thoughts about the Impact Player rule and feels that it has nothing to do with discouragement for all-rounders.

"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 channel.

‘If not for Impact Player rule, Jurel may have never gotten the chance’

Ashwin also gave example of Sunrisers Hyderabad using Shahbaz Ahmed effectively during bowling to get the tactical advantage on turning tracks.

"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 [with 3 for 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," said Ashwin.

He further talked about Dhruv Jurel and said if it was not for the Impact Player rule, the cricketing world would not have witnessed his talent on the big stage.

"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," said Ashwin during the same discussion.

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