During the IPL 2024 season, India skipper Rohit Sharma expressed his reservations over the ‘Impact Player’ rule, citing that it is holding back the all-rounders. Since then, a lot of current and former players have joined the bandwagon in support of Rohit.

The Impact Player rule was introduced in IPL 2023. Under this rule, each team can name as many as four substitute players along with their playing XI at the toss. One of them can replace a member from the original XI during the match and the player will be called Impact Player.

Amid the debate, veteran India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has backed the Impact Player rule, saying that it adds a bit more value for "strategy".

"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," Ashwin said while speaking on Kris Srikkanth's YouTube show Cheeky Cheeka.

"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," he added.

Ashwin cited an example from Qualifier 2 of IPL 2024 to further clear his stance. The knockout match has witnessed Impact Substitute Shahbaz Ahmed playing a critical role in Sunrisers Hyderabad’s win over Rajasthan Royals.

"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," Ashwin said.

"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," he remarked.

Ashwin also highlighted that this rule has enabled a few players to move up in the ranks in the national team.

"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," he satated.

(With ANI Inputs)