Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has suggested five rule changes ahead of the next edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2026) as well. He said that teams should be awarded a bonus point for registering resounding wins, stating that it would make the latter stages of the tournament more interesting as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “Bring a bonus point. There is a lot of focus on net run rate currently. I feel it does not bring that much thrill on a day-to-day basis. The simple funda is to give a bonus point if you play 20 percent better than the opposing team. If you score 200 runs, stop the opposition for less than 160. If you are chasing 200, do it in 16 overs, which means you played 20 percent fewer overs.”

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“Teams will come on odd points and it will become a little more thrilling. One might not feel it that much at the start, but when we reach the business end of the tournament, suddenly it will bring more thrill. Wherever you are in a season, you are never really out of it. A string of wins with bonus points will cover up for a few losses,” he further added.

“You get a like-for-like concussion substitute. Why not do it for a serious injury as well? The BCCI is already doing that in first-class cricket. We are the flagbearers. We restarted the saliva use. Similarly, a replacement for a serious injury, let’s do that in the IPL because we are the path setters,” he shared.

However, Aakash Chopra also suggested a way to help teams exercise the IPL’s mid-season transfer rule as well.

“It exists, but it is never exercised. That is mid-season transfer. If you haven’t put a player’s name in your 16-player list, including the sub options, in the first eight matches, make him automatically available. Every team should mandatorily nominate three such players. Can you bring the unused resources to the table to uplift the tournament’s standard?” he said.

“My fourth suggestion is about the leg-side wide. If you have watched attentively, there is a line far away from the stumps and another close to them. Can that line be kept as the wide mark? The ball should be a wide on the leg side only if it goes outside that. As soon as the ball goes minutely outside the leg stump, it’s called a wide now. Sometimes you feel it’s unfair because it’s not unplayable,” Aakash Chopra concluded.