Impact Player is a luxury to have: MS Dhoni

The 16^th edition of the Indian Premier League has got underway with the opening game between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The ongoing season is expected to be even grander as it will be happening in the ‘home and away’ format after a long time.

The other thing that is expected to make the tournament even more exciting is the introduction of the new ‘Impact Player’ rule. Commenting on the latest innovation in the T20 extravaganza, CSK captain MS Dhoni said that it’s a luxury to have and it has lessened the influence of an allrounder.

"It's a luxury to have (impact player) and it becomes slightly easy to use here because in domestic (Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy) it was at the 14th over. It becomes slightly easy to take the decision because you can use it at any time. Influence of allrounder has become slightly less because of the rule," said Dhoni at the toss.

According to the rule, both captains don’t have to name their playing XI at the toss and can make last-minute tweaks to their teams based on whether they’re batting or bowling first. Apart from naming the playing XI and the 12th man, a team can name five substitute players, one of whom can become the ‘Impact Player’ at any stage of the game.

He can replace anyone from the playing XI during stoppages such as the fall of a wicket, the end of an over, or the end of innings during the match. Once a player has been replaced by an impact player, he will have no further role to play in the game and will warm the bench. The rule further states that if a team has already used the full quota of four foreign players in their playing XI then the Impact Player has to be an Indian. 

Whenever an Impact Player will be introduced into the game, the umpire will make a cross signal with both hands over their heads. The phenomenon has been tested in the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy and was received well by the teams.

Coming back to the opening match between CSK and GT, after being put in to bat first, Chennai is 29/1 after four overs (at the time of writing). Mohammed Shami drew the first blood for Gujarat as he destroyed the stumps of Devon Conway who departed after scoring just one run.