Mumbai Indians star opener Rohit Sharma recently spoke about the ‘impact player’ rule in the IPL and said such rules will not be beneficial to the Indian team, especially ahead of the T20 World Cup. IPL 2024 will end on May 26 and the ICC tournament will begin on June 2, co-hosted by the United States and West Indies. Rohit said some famous all-rounders did not get a chance to play due to the ‘impact player’ rule, which would hinder the development of the Indian team in the long run.

Rohit is a member of the podcast ‘Club Prairie Fire’, co-hosted by former Australia wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist and ex-England Michael Vaughan.

“I’m not a big fan of affecting sub-rules. It will hinder the progress of all players and ultimately a cricket match will be played with 11 players instead of 12. You get a lot out of the game and make it interesting for those around you. If you Just from a cricketing perspective, I feel the likes of Shivam Dube and Washington Sundar don’t get a chance to bowl and that’s not a good thing for us,” Rohit said.

“I don’t know what you can do about it. It’s fun to have 12 players to choose from and you can take impactful players after watching how the game goes, how the pitch performs. If you hit the ball well And without losing wickets, you can add another bowler and it gives you a choice of six or seven bowlers. You don’t need an extra batsman because a lot of teams are batting in front of you. There is hardly a No. 7 or No. 8 batsman in sight,” he added.

Replying to Rohit, Gilchrist said the “influential player” rule was a concern as the “integrity of cricket” was being compromised for the sake of entertainment.

“I think it adds something special. It’s all built for the audience and their entertainment. You’re compromising the fundamentals of cricket. Why T20s are so entertaining is because you’re not compromising the integrity of cricket,” Gilchrist said.

“It’s 11 vs 11, the field size is the same and the field restrictions are the same. No gimmicks needed. I think it’s a bit worrying. They showed statistics of 250+ scores in 2008-2023 IPL only 2 times and this IPL this year has already had 4 250-odd runs, the bowling is not bad, it’s just that people have a free mentality and that’s the way T20 cricket is played now.”