All-round development: The Impact Player rule is holding back several multifaceted players in IPL
The impact player rule is pushing teams to prioritise specific skills over the overall skill-set, essentially diminishing the significance of all-rounders.
This article originally appeared in The Field’s newsletter, Game Points, on May 8, 2024. Sign up here to get the newsletter directly delivered to your inbox every week.
India captain Rohit Sharma was sure that he wanted four spinners in the squad for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. When it came down to shortlisting them, a promising spin-bowling all-rounder Washington Sundar had to be overlooked for a simple reason.
“Unfortunately, Washi [Washington Sundar] has not been getting opportunities lately,” said Sharma in the press conference after the squad was announced.
Earlier, Sharma had specifically pointed out how the introduction of the impact player rule in the Indian Premier League was affecting all-rounders. The rule, which was introduced in the IPL last season, allows teams to substitute a player at any time during the match, effectively giving them 12 players to play a match with.
“I genuinely feel the impact player rule is going to hold back the development of all-rounders because eventually cricket is played by 11 players, not 12,” Sharma said in the Club Prairie Fire podcast. “Guys like Washington and Shivam Dube are not getting to bowl, which is not a good thing for us [India]. I am not sure what you can do about it,...
