The Impact player rule has affected the game in the Indian Premier League 2024. We have seen several huge scores being recorded with teams having more freedom to go all guns blazing with an extra batter in their ranks.
The rule has hurt Indian cricket in a way with teams not giving several all-rounders a go with the ball and utilising them as batters. However contrary to the popular opinion of the rule impacting the all-rounders, Sunrisers Hyderabad star Shahbaz Ahmed has said that the rule has affected the bowlers more than the all-rounders.
Now every team has in total 9 batters, an all-rounder and eight batters. Also, the teams look for players, who can strike big from ball one and carry on the momentum till the end. The 'Impact Player' rule has affected bowlers more than all-rounders because this gives batters the cushion to play freely," Shahbaz told PTI videos.
He said that the teams had less idea of using the Impact player rule when it was first implemented in 2023 but now have got the idea much better. "The teams didn’t know much about how to use it (Impact Player) last season. The all-rounders have a reduced role, which means they are getting a lesser chance to bowl, unlike earlier times when they used to bowl four overs.
"A lot of all-rounders are facing this. now they get to bowl one or two overs, this is true, this is visible to everyone, but I think, the batters who used to anchor games, has also gone down significantly," he added.
Shahbaz hails Pat Cummins
Pat Cummins was appointed as SRH captain before this season. Shahbaz has said that Cummins has created a pressure-free environment. "If I talk about myself whenever Pat throws the ball to me, he always backs me. This sort of helps me to soak in pressure well and even if the ball goes to the boundary, he doesn’t say anything and keeps motivating all bowlers.
"He and the coach (Daniel Vettori) have created such an environment that no player in the camp ever feels that there’s any sort of pressure. The players are playing freely, we enjoy playing under his captaincy and that has what helped us to perform well," he said.
