Delhi coach Ricky Ponting points major drawback of 'Impact Player' rule

Ricky Ponting (Image credit: Twitter)

The upcoming Indian T20 League will see a new feature where captains will be allowed to announce their playing XI after the toss, a move to minimize the impact of the toss on the game. There will also be the introduction of the 'Impact Player', where each team can name 5 substitutes while naming their playing 11. Out of these five, only 1 can be an impact player. Ahead of the 16th edition of ITL, Delhi head coach Ricky Ponting has opened up on the new rule saying it "almost negates the role of allrounders".

Speaking at an event in New Delhi, Ponting said: "It actually almost negates the role of allrounders in the game now. So unless they're absolutely world-class and they're getting picked either as a batsman or as a bowler, not sort of a bits and pieces guy, then I don't think you'll see many, many teams this year actually use the guy that might bat at seven and maybe bowling over or two. Because you don't need those guys anymore."

The former Australian captain said the use of an impact player depends on whether you bat or bowl first and there are different ways to use the new rule.

"So at the toss, we will be putting in a bowling-first team and a batting-first team. And obviously if you bat first, you're probably going to sub in a batter. Or if you bat first and lose an early wicket, you might want to bring in a batter straight on top of that. So there are a number of different ways to use it," he said.

The rule is actually quite confusing, says Ponting

For the unversed, if a team is fielding four foreign players, the impact player must be an Indian. An impact player can only be a foreigner if there are three foreign players in the XI.

Ponting said the new rule is "actually quite confusing, to be honest". “To just work through the whole range of different ways that we can use some of these players as far as the impact rule is concerned, we’ve got a bit of work to do."

The 48-year-old added that if they had known about this before the player auction, they would have built the squad accordingly.

“The fact that we found out about the impact player rule post auction as well… you’ve got to work with what you’ve got. I think if we would’ve known about it before the auction, we might have looked at it in a slightly different way. It is what it is," he added.

The ITL 2023 will begin from March 31 when defending champions Gujarat take on Chennai at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Delhi will kick off their campaign against Lucknow on Saturday, April 1 and look to clinch their maiden ITL title.