In an effort to bring more notice to the upcoming season of the Big Bash League T20 tournament, Cricket Australia introduced some new rules which were their way of making the format more appealing to both the players and the fans.

One of the rules is the ‘X-factor player’ in which the teams will be allowed one X-factor player after the 10th over of the game to replace a batsman or, for the fielding team, a bowler who has bowled no more than one over.

The ‘Power Surge’ rule gives the on-filed batsman a boost of two overs of powerplay at any stage in the second half of the innings, where only two players will be allowed in fielding positions outside the inner-ring. The original powerplay has been trimmed to four overs-a-side to accommodate this power surge.

BBL 10: Jimmy Neesham questions the latest 'X-factor player' rule in 2020-21 BBL

The third and final rule change involves a bonus competition point, to be called a ‘bash boost,’ being awarded halfway through the second innings to the team with the best 10-over score.

Though there is quite an excitement about the new rules for the BBL 10, with Darren Lehmann citing them as bringing something fresh to the table and called the X-factor rule impactful.

But on the other hand, former Australia captain Shane Watson and current batsman Usman Khawaja are not too excited about the new proposed changes.

Watson expressed his views on the three rule changes and said that the organizers are ‘trying to reinvent the wheel when the wheel was not broken’.

Writing in a blog post, Watson said, “I read today that the BBL is introducing these new gimmicks, such as the ‘Power Surge’, the ‘X Factor Player’ and the ‘Bash Boost’ in a misguided attempt to reinvigorate the tournament. I just can’t seem to get my head around why there are people out there who are trying to reinvent the wheel when the wheel was not broken.”

“The complexities that these new ‘science experiments’ are going to create for the viewers, let alone the players and coaches, when none of these have been tried and tested at lower levels, have really taken the wind out of my sails,” Watson wrote further.

Instead, he said that CA must work on bringing in all the best players in the world to play of some of the best possible pitches to get excitement in the tournament.

“The simple game plan in my mind is to get the world’s best cricketers playing on world-class pitches and guess what, you will get world-class cricket to watch for the cricket lovers out there and we will all be on the edge of our seats admiring the feats of these amazing cricketers,” he added.

His views were echoed by Sydney Thunder batsman Usman Khawaja, who criticized the new rulings on Twitter. He wrote, “So had a day to think about new BBL rules. My biggest issue is that the BBL is all about (and great at) getting new people involved whom have never played.”

“But the rule changes complicate what’s already a very complicated game (for newcomers). Shouldn’t we be going the other way?” he added.

The BBL 10 will begin on December 10.