The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is open to reviewing the Impact Player rule in the IPL after Rohit Sharma highlighted its detrimental effect on the development of all-rounders.
The Team India captain's critical analysis of the rule which has been in place since last season following its implementation in the 2022-23 Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament has left the Board red-faced.
"Now that such an observation has been made, we will definitely look into it. We will discuss with all parties involved and then take a call," IPL governing council chairman Arun Dhumal told The Telegraph on Friday.
"There are various pros and cons to any rule that is in place. We are open to any discussion once the season gets over... nothing is cast in stone about its implementation," Dhumal said.
The Team India captain, speaking on the Club Prairie Fire Podcast with Adam Gilchrist and Michael Vaughan, said he is "not a big fan of Impact Player" rule.
"I generally feel that it is going to hold back (all-rounders) because eventually cricket is played by 11 players, not 12 players," Rohit said on the podcast. "I'm not a big fan of Impact Player (rule). You are taking out so much from the game just to make it a little entertaining for the people.
"But if you look (at) genuinely, just the cricketing aspect of it... I can give you so many examples — guys like Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube are not getting to bowl, which for us is not a good thing," Rohit remarked.
Jasprit Bumrah too was critical following Mumbai Indians' victory over Punjab Kings on Thursday. "With the time restrictions (over-rate penalties) as well and the Impact Player rule, that does not help the bowler too much because the batting line-up becomes deeper and deeper and the bowler becomes half the bowler when you get an extra option," the fast bowler said.
Rohit had been speaking in the context of the preparations for the T20 World Cup in June. Dube, one of the promising all-rounders and power-hitters, hasn't bowled an over in this edition because of the rule which allowed Chennai Super Kings to play an extra specialist bowler.
Even Hardik Pandya has not bowled himself to full potential which has left the national selectors concerned. Only twice has he completed his quota of overs, in their away fixtures against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Punjab Kings. He has bowled in five of the seven matches since the rule allowed him to fall back on other options.
The lack of all-rounders has been a lingering problem with India's limited-overs sides. It is believed such rules have no place in a high-profile franchise league like the IPL since innovation cannot come in the way of the development of the players.
Player substitution had been tried in the Big Bash League as its 'X-factor', whereby any of the two listed substitute players could be fielded at the ten-over mark. There was one condition though: in the BBL, the player to be replaced should not have batted or bowled more than one over. However, based on feedback by the teams, the system was scrapped ahead of the 2022-23 BBL season.
The ICC too had experimented with the 'Super Sub' player substitution in ODIs in 2005, but that was discontinued within a year.