Entertainment is one aspect of the game but there is no balance: Kohli on Impact player rule

New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) Following the comments made by Rohit Sharma in which he criticized the Impact player rule, Virat Kohli has come to the support of his national team captain and spoken against the rule as it disrupts the balance of the game.

“I agree with Rohit. Entertainment is one aspect of the game but there is no balance,” said Kohli to Jio Cinema.

The impact player rule was introduced in the 2023 IPL season and has seen massive changes to the way which teams approach the game. The 2024 season has seen three of the highest scores in IPL history being scored (SRH v RCB, SRH v MI & KKR v DC.)

“Bowlers are feeling like what they should do. I have never experienced anything like it where bowlers think they will concede four or a six on every ball. We are playing a high level of cricket and it should not be that dominant in my opinion. There is a beauty about having an equal balance between bat and ball. Not every team has a Bumrah (Jasprit) or the mystery of Rashid Khan,” added the all time IPL leading run scorer.

Virat Kohli is currently the orange cap holder of this edition of the Indian Premier League having scored 661 runs in 13 games played so far. What is even more impressive is the impressive 155.16 strike rate he is batting at, the best ever of his stellar IPL career, a stat that he attributes to the introduction of the impact player rule.

“I am telling you, with one extra batter there is a reason I am playing with 200 plus strike rate in the powerplays. I know there is a batsman waiting at No 8 as well. I think it has disrupted the balance and a lot of people are feeling this way, not just me,” Kohli said.

Virat’s comments stem from Rohit Sharma’s comments in which the team India captain heavily criticized the impact players rule as the captain believes it hinders the development of all-rounders and will have a negative impact on the national team.

"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 the 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. I don't know what you can do about it, but I'm not a fan of it honestly speaking," said Rohit Sharma on the Club Praire podcast.

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