Ashwin believes the Impact Player Rule brings a strategic element to the Ind-T20 League

R Ashwin believes the Impact Player rule has added a strategic element to the Indian T20 League that will go away if the rule is discontinued. 

There has been heavy criticism of the rule from various quarters including from Rohit Sharma, who isn’t a “huge fan”. The criticism is that it averts the development of all-rounders. Also, teams have started scoring more because of the provision of an extra batter (if the team chooses to substitute)

"Why I think the Impact Player rule is not so bad is because it gives a little more value for strategy," Ashwin said on Kris Srikkanth's YouTube show Cheeky Cheeka. "The other side of that argument is that it doesn't encourage allrounders. But no one is stopping them.

“In this generation, they don't do it [batters bowling and vice-versa]. It's not like they're discouraged because of the Impact Player rule. Look at Venkatesh Iyer, he's currently rocking for Lancashire. There's an opportunity for innovation and it makes the game fairer."

Ashwin took an example from Qualifier 2 of the Indian T20 League 2024 to support his stance “Hyderabad (HYD) brought in Shahbaz Ahmed as an Impact Player [vs Rajasthan (RAJ), after hitting 175 for 9 batting first]; he went on to become a match-winner [with 3 for 23].

 “When dew has the potential to make games one-sided, teams bowling second get an extra option as a counter. If you're batting second, you can tactically make a substitution by offloading the extra bowler for a batter.

"Games are tighter, an extra player is getting to play. Barring Kolkata or Mumbai, where scores skyrocketed, they haven't been a drastic change elsewhere. Like at Punjab's home venue [Mullanpur], they were all 160-170 games."

Ashwin argued that many players rose through the ranks, even into the national side, as a result of this rule. "Shahbaz Ahmed, Shivam Dube most importantly, Dhruv Jurel… If not for the Impact Player rule, he may have never gotten the chance. So the emergence of a lot of players has happened. I'm not saying that's the only way for players to emerge, but it's not so bad."

Elsewhere, a mega auction is soon to be held. The Right to Match (RTM) has not been in effect since 2018, but the Indian T20 League is still contemplating the retention rules for the auction and reintroducing RTM is one of the things on the agenda.