Delhi Capitals (DC) spinner Axar Patel expressed his unhappiness at the Impact Player rule, saying all teams prefer to play specialist batters and bowlers as substitutes via the rule which decreases his and other all-rounders’ roles as well. However, the Impact Player rule has been in action since IPL 2023 but it’s only this year that a lot of national and international players have shared their views about it. Most all-rounders have stopped bowling in IPL 2024 because they don’t need to while batting totals and bowlers’ economy rates are reaching highs as well.
“I am not a huge fan of the Impact Player rule,” Axar Patel said at a DC media interaction for a selected group of journalists. “Teams either use proper batters or proper bowlers but no body is using all-rounders. So I am not a fan of it.”
The spin-bowling all-rounder also said that although he has spoken to the team management about batting up the order, it isn’t possible because they want to allow the youngsters to bat in their favourite positions as well and Axar, being the senior pro, thus, often needs to take up the finishing role.
“Whoever is making the rules is thinking that only batting will decide where the game would go (smiles). It has obviously become very difficult for bowlers. But the way I see it is, there’s pressure but there’s also opportunity to do well in such situations and using your skills. Because of the Impact Player rule, there’s an extra player. Teams think that if the batting doesn’t do well, they can get an extra batter and if it does well, they’ll get an extra bowler. So, whoever comes in starts hitting from the first ball. I am seeing this from the last two years that no one likes to take time because they know they can have batters till number seven or eight,” Axar Patel stated.
“I don’t watch matches! (laughs) There are so many matches going on so I don’t watch. At the end, I just check the scores. I have been playing cricket for so long and in the last few years it has always been the case that there’s either a World Cup or a big series after the IPL. I am so used to it and you can also see my World Cup record with injuries (smiles)… so I just remain relaxed and not think too much except that I just need to do well here and the road ahead will form itself,” Axar Patel concluded.
