“Impact Player won’t negate role of all-rounders,” says Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma doesn’t consider that the introduction of ‘Impact Player’ within the Indian Premier League (IPL) will negate the function of all-rounders within the shorter format.

“I don’t know whether it will impact an all-rounder. An all-rounder will always be an all-rounder. No matter what stage of the game, he will give you the option of bowling him any time; making him bat any time. Yes, with the 12th player, you can fill that gap a little bit, having that balance of the fifth or sixth bowler or that extra batter. But you still want to put your best players in the park,” Rohit, the Mumbai Indians captain, mentioned on Wednesday.

Just a few days in the past, former Australia captain and Delhi Capitals coach Ricky Ponting said that the Impact Player rule within the IPL may nicely imply curtains for “bits and pieces all-rounders”.

However, Rohit doesn’t consider so.

“There may be a slight difference to it but I don’t think it’s going to impact so much in terms of having an all-rounder in your team or not…” the India captain mentioned. “As I said earlier, this is an interesting rule where you see how the other teams and the mindset of other teams and we will have an idea by the time we play our first game…”

Even Mumbai Indians head coach and former South Africa coach Mark Boucher agreed with Rohit. “The impact player is going to be quite interesting. As Rohit said, we will have to adapt to everything that happens. And we’ll be able to see how others are using it and hopefully, learn from the way they use it as well. You want to use the impact player, which is exactly the word, you want to have a player who comes in and makes a massive impact on the game. That’s the mindset that I have…”