Delhi Capitals (DC) coach and former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has said that the introduction of the innovative impact player rule in the upcoming IPL 2023 edition will reduce the role of all-rounders in the team.
He said for example that a team may use a specialist batsman or a specialist bowler depending on the match situation. Any team chasing a huge total after finishing their bowling might replace their frontline bowler with a proper batter to gain an advantage.
“You don’t need to pick all-rounders now because you can name a batting or a bowling-heavy team and just take one out and bring the other in. Unless they’re absolutely world-class and they’re getting picked either as a batsman or as a bowler, and not as a bits-and-pieces player then I don’t see many teams this year use the guy that might bat at seven and bowl an over or two,” Ponting said at a promotional event.
He also added, “The fact that we found out about the impact player rule post-auction as well… you’ve got to work with what you’ve got. I think if we would’ve known about it before the auction, we might have looked at it in a slightly different way. It is what it is.”
According to the rules, an impact player can be picked from the five substitutes. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has increased the strength of the playing squad to 16 for this season’s IPL.
The ruling says that an impact player can be introduced “(i) before the start of the innings or (ii) after completion of an over or (iii) in case of a batter, at the fall of the wicket or the batter retiring at any time during the over. Furthermore, the bowling side can also bring in an Impact Player during the fall of a wicket, but he will not be permitted to bowl the remaining balls in the over if the wicket has fallen mid-over.”
Ricky Ponting also stated that the impact player ruling is a bit confusing as well.
“It’s actually quite confusing, to be honest. To just work through the whole range of different ways that we can use some of these players as far as the impact rule is concerned, we’ve got a bit of work to do,” Ponting added.
(Indian Express inputs)
