Indian Premier League ( IPL ) introduces Impact Player

By Dr Nilesh Mehta

Hold on to your cricket hats, folks, because the 2023 Indian Premier League is about to get spicy! They’re taking a page from soccer and basketball’s playbook and introducing the Impact Player rule.   The benchwarmers will finally get their chance to shine, and who knows, they may become the stars of the show! Say goodbye to the days of the 12th man as a glorified drinks carrier; it’s time for them to step up and show what they’re made of. 

 

It will be exciting to see how the IPL teams utilise the Impact Player to replace any one cricketer in the Playing XI. According to Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting, the importance of all-rounders will diminish in teams with the introduction of Impact Player. This makes sense if you consider this scenario – Team A finished their bowling and now chasing a relatively large total to ensure their win. Team A chasing can now use their best batter from the reserves to insert as their Impact Player instead of a weaker batter.  For a team fielding first, a replacement bowler can be implemented if one of their bowlers is ineffective. Ponting added during a Delhi Capitals event, “The fact that we found out about the impact player post auction. We might have looked at it slightly differently if we had known about it before the auction. It is what it is.” In any case, it was a level playing field and rules for all the ten teams. So, no real advantages or disadvantages. 

Based on the rules, an impact player can be picked from the five substitutes. For this year, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has increased the strength of the playing squad to 16. An Impact Player can be introduced “(i) before the start of the innings or (ii) after completion of an over or (iii) in case of a batter, at the fall of the wicket or the batter retiring at any time during the over. Furthermore, the bowling side can also bring in an Impact Player during the fall of a wicket, but he will not be permitted to bowl the remaining balls in the over if the wicket has fallen mid-over.” 

 Teams can use one impact player per match. The impact player can bat and bowl full quota. The outgoing player cannot rejoin the match. Overseas players can be an impact player if the starting XI has less than 4 overseas players.

Generally, analysts, coaches, and assistant coaching staff are vital to any team as they look from the outside in. With the Impact Player rule being enforced in the 16th edition of the IPL, the importance of these folks is enhanced further as they will be the real cerebral think tank for the onfield skipper. As more matches of IPL 2023 continue to unfold, and teams display the utility of the Impact Player, a better understanding will emerge from the think tanks of the ten teams.  

 

During the post-match presentation after the first IPL 2023 match between the Gujarat Titans and the Chennai Super Kings on March 31, 2023, Hardik Pandya, captain of the IPL Champions in 2022, expressed his challenges with the impact rules, stating that the abundance of options made his job difficult. Before the match, Pandya deferred to the head coach Ashish Nehra and the coaching staff to determine the usefulness of the Impact Player. Observing how the Impact Players are utilised will be intriguing as the tournament progresses.

 

The Impact Player rule debuted in the Big Bash League, and now, IPL 2023 viewers will also witness umpires introducing a new signal for scorers. In addition, over the last several years, the game has undergone several transformations, including a reduction in overs from 60 to 50 in the One Day International, Twenty overs and Ten overs format, implementation of the Decision Review System (DRS), and utilisation of different coloured balls like Red, White, and Pink. It’s gratifying to see changes happening in all game formats. However, one wonders what the future holds.

As we look towards the future, it seems like robots are making their way into every aspect of our lives, even sports! Cricket analysts are now scrambling to devise strategies to defeat these machines, and who knows, maybe one day, we’ll have drones flying around as umpires and robots as wicketkeepers! The idea of an all-robot cricket team competing against humans may seem far-fetched now, but who knows what the future holds? It’s undoubtedly an exciting time to be a cricket fan!