Ravichandran Ashwin supports IPL ’impact player’ rule: ’All bowlers will need to be hitters’

Amid the debate over the impact of players' inclusion in the Indian Premier League, ace Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin supported the new change, requesting the bowlers to start working on their batting skills to meet the demands of the game, news agency PTI quoted JioCinema Match Centre Live.

Aswhin was commenting because he didn't want to single out the impact player rule as the only contributing factor in high scores being recorded several times this IPL, which registered the 250-mark 41 times and the highest being 287.

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"Even if the impact player rule wasn't there, scores would be this high," Ashwin said on JioCinema Match Centre Live on Wednesday, adding, "In my opinion, batters have more confidence and pitches everywhere have been standardised."

He said, "In the future, all bowlers will need to be hitters because we know that no matter how well we bowl, we also need to be able to bat. The game is headed in that direction."

Earlier, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma expressed his reservation regarding the impact player rule, arguing that it hampers the development of all-rounders in the country. Star batter Virat Kohli, too, said that it disrupts the balance of the game.

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Speaking on the Club Prairie Podcast, which is co-hosted Adam Gilchirst and Michael Vaughan, Rohit had said, "I generally feel that it is going to hold back (development of allrounders) because eventually cricket is played by 11 players, not 12 players. I'm not a big fan of impact player. You are taking out so much from the game just to make it little entertainment for the people around. But if you look [at] genuinely just cricketing aspect of it…. I can give you so many examples - guys like Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube are not getting to bowl, which for us [India team] is not a good thing."

The impact player rule was formally adopted in the 2023 edition of the IPL after a trial in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy domestic T20s. BCCI secretary Jay Shah said it was implemented on a 'test case' basis and is not permanent.

With agency inputs.