“Please Remove This Impact Sub Thing”: India Pacer After Rohit Sharma’s Criticism

The ‘Impact Player’ rule in the IPL has come under the scanner after criticism from various players and experts including Indian cricket team skipper Rohit Sharma. The Impact Player rule, which is not part of international matches yet, was introduced in the IPL in 2023 and the main criticism regarding the rule was the negative impact on all-rounders. Ahead of the IPL 2024 match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Kolkata Knight Riders, fast bowler Mohammed Siraj joined Rohit in criticising the rule and said that the surfaces are already quite flat and there is almost no help for bowlers in the competition.

“It’s important to be comfortable, if you think too much, it’ll lead to negativity and frustrations, so I always try to be as positive as possible, try to close all negative connotations around me. Please remove this impact sub thing (laughs), the wickets are already flat and there’s nothing for the bowlers in it, previously, it used to be slow at times, but the batters now come out swinging at absolutely everything,” he said.

“My game plan is to be consistent, if a good ball gets hit, so be it. It was a long time that teams made 250+, but it has become such a common feature now (thanks to impact sub and the flat pitches). It’s been a long time since I’ve played a day game, I last played a day game during the Test series against England, but we’re professionals and we have no excuses,” Siraj added.

Earlier, Rohit clearly said that he is not a fan of the ‘Impact Player’ rule.

“I am not a big fan of Impact sub rule. It is going to hold all rounders back, eventually cricket is played by 11 players not 12 players. You are taking out so much from game to make it entertaining for people around. If you look just from the cricketing aspect of it I feel guys like Shivam Dube and Washington Sundar aren’t getting to bowl, which for us is not a good thing,” Rohit had said on ‘Club Prairie Fire’ podcast.

“I don’t know what you can do about it. There are 12 players for you, it is entertaining, you can bring on the impact player after watching how the game is going, how the pitch is behaving. If you bat well and you don’t lose wickets, you can add another bowler, it gives you an option of six or seven bowlers. You don’t require that extra batter because a lot of teams are batting well up front and you hardly see a No 7 or No 8 coming to bat,” he had explained.