Ahead of the tournament, Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting had stated that the Impact player rule will negate the role of all-rounders and bits-and-pieces players, something which was also echoed by Kolkata Knight Riders' batting all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer too.

So far, the impact player rule has been panning out on the lines Ponting had said as majority of teams have preferred to take the batter-bowler and bowler-batter swap. But former India left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha thinks the impact player rule won't take away anyone's value in teams.

"Not really, I feel everybody has a role to play. Impact player rule always adds value. It will never take away anybody else's value in the team. If you see, we will have all-rounders. But you will have a specialist coming in to either bat or bowl."

"So, this only enhances your team's value and in the long run, the way you use them will be very important. That is why how you choose your player is going to be very important," he said in a virtual interaction organised by JioCinema, where he's an IPL expert.

While calling the impact player rule brilliant, Ojha believes it has meant no team is out of contention from winning a game from any scenario. "Now teams have a lot of strategies to outsmart the other teams. At any given point, one cannot say that a team is out of the game because that impact player can bring a team anytime in the match."

"It's now not about eleven versus eleven; it has become twelve versus twelve. How smartly one team uses the impact player rule, that will now enhance a side's performance."

Apart from the impact player rule, one of the most interesting trends in IPL 2023 has been the leg-spinners being highly effective for teams, with four of them being in the top ten wicket-takers list.

Ojha pointed out that senior leg-spinners Amit Mishra and Piyush Chawla, who didn't feature in last year's IPL, have been brilliant and could be hugely useful for their respective teams as the tournament progresses.

"Now a lot of teams are using leg-spinners, especially in the death overs. Initially we saw spinners bowling in the power-play, now we will see a trend where leg-spinners will be bowling in the death overs and have been more economical than other bowlers.

"It is also the reason why people are going towards experienced bowlers like Mishra, Chawla, who add value in power-play and middle overs, as well as potentially in death bowlers when the wicket are slower and can get you wickets."

Ojha, who played for Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians in the IPL, sees young spinners Hrithik Shokeen, Kumar Kartikeya Singh and Shahbaz Ahmed as future options for the Indian cricket team in spin department.

"He (Shokeen) has got good fingers and has the potential of doing really well, but it is too early. We hardly see any good off-spinners. After Ashwin, we have Washington Sundar. But in red-ball cricket, this guy has the potential to develop. But it's a long way to go as he's got to play a lot of domestic cricket. His bowling, temperament and action looks really good."

"Kartikeya can bowl both left-arm orthodox and wrist-spin. He has got good skills and every time he has played, he has created an impact. I would like to see some more of Shahbaz. He did well in domestic cricket and in IPL and that's why he has been picked in the Indian team. I would really like these two guys to do well."

--IANS
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