Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting has backed former Mumbai Indians’ captain Rohit Sharma’s stance on scrapping the Impact Player rule in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as it takes the all-rounders out of the equation.
Earlier, the Indian captain had said that he is not a big fan of the Impact Player rule as it holds the development of all-rounders because 11 players and not 12 eventually play cricket.
“I read some interesting answers from Rohit Sharma on this yesterday. The Impact Player rule is taking the all-rounders out of the game a little bit,” Ponting told reporters ahead of Delhi Capitals’ clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
“You know you can play your specialists. You can play a specialist batsman down to No.8, and then you can change him in the second innings. Rohit gave examples of Shivam Dube and Washington Sundar not bowling. I think for a coach and for the players, it’s probably not ideal, but I think what this game tries to do is entertain people,” the legend said.
“The T20 game is an entertainment package and I think it’s probably better to ask the spectators what they think about the Impact Player because if everyone is loving the fact that teams are making 220 to 250 in a lot of games, it should stay. But if the spectators aren’t liking it as much, there’s no reason why it couldn’t go back to just 11 vs 11,” he added.
The Impact Player Rule was introduced into the lucrative tournament in 2023, allowing teams to substitute a player from the original playing XI and field a player from the bench.