"It adds complexity" - Rahul Dravid gives his verdict on much-debated rule in IPL 2025

Rajasthan Royals (RR) head coach Rahul Dravid has said that he is not a fan of the Impact Player rule in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The 52-year-old said that while the rule made matches more competitive, it hampered the development of all-rounders in cricket.

Dravid added that the introduction of the Impact Player rule has made things difficult from the perspective of the national team. In an interview with Sportstar, the former India head coach said:

“I’ll be honest: when I was India’s coach, I wasn’t particularly fond of the Impact Player rule. Not because it doesn’t make the game more competitive — it certainly does. It adds complexity and keeps matches alive till the very end. But from a national team perspective, it posed some challenges."

“As a coach, you want to develop all-rounders, and under the old 11 vs 11 format, certain players would have had more opportunities to bat or bowl in different situations. The Impact Player rule has changed that to some extent," Dravid added.

The 52-year-old said that the Impact Player rule had led to a rise in scoring rates. He felt that the introduction of the rule had helped teams stay in the game for a lot longer than before.

“Statistically, scoring rates have increased due to teams having an extra specialist batter. This means no team is ever truly out of a game. You can have a batter at No.8 or even No.9, which allows for aggressive hitting even after losing six or seven wickets,” he continued.

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Rahul Dravid joins the chorus to voice their opinion against the Impact Player rule

Rahul Dravid was only the latest personality from the cricketing world to voice his opinion against the Impact Player rule. Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis had recently called for the removal of the rule from the IPL, as he, too, felt it was not helping Indian cricket.

"I think they should move on from it — unless it’s going to be introduced in international cricket. Otherwise, it doesn’t serve much purpose, especially for Indian cricket. I would love to see the rule scrapped. I actually thought it would be this year," Stoinis said to the aforementioned report.

The Impact Player rule was introduced in IPL 2023 to make the contest more interesting. It permits teams to replace a player from the playing XI at any point of an innings in a match.