Dinesh Karthik wants IPL Impact Player rule retained for 2027 despite all-rounder concerns

Dinesh Karthik wants the IPL Impact Player rule retained through 2027, arguing that scrapping it midway through the current cycle would unfairly affect teams. The RCB coach also believes the rule has reduced India’s chances of producing all-rounders.

New Delhi: Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s batting coach and mentor Dinesh Karthik wants the Impact Player rule to stay intact at least for the upcoming IPL 2027, calling that scrapping the contentious rule in the middle of an IPL cycle would not “make sense”.

Karthik, although, criticised the rule for “reducing the chances for India to produce all-rounders”, but batted for the rule to stay in IPL 2027. Speaking to Cricbuzz, he stated that the teams have built their squads with the impact player rule in their minds, highlighting that taking it away in the middle of an IPL cycle would not be sensible.

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The rule came ahead of IPL 2023 and in the middle of an IPL cycle after the mega auctions were completed for IPL 2022. The current IPL cycle runs till 2027 after the mega auction took place in 2025.

“When it first came on (Impact Player rule), it was very good because there were high-scoring games and there were a lot of teams that were almost chasing it down. But strangely, this last season, there were not too many close games.

“It just felt like one team scored a lot, and another team ended up chasing it down. And if you look at how the impact player rule has impacted the IPL, it was quite positive at the start. But slowly but steadily, it started losing the charm and the reason why it was there,” Karthik told Cricbuzz.

He highlighted that the rule has made an impact on India not being able to produce many all-rounders. “It helped make the game more high-scoring than what it was. But it definitely decreased the chances of India as a cricketing country producing all-rounders,” he said before wanting the rule to stay this season.

“But what I wouldn’t want is it to be scrapped for this season because teams have been picked with having an impact player in mind. So it makes a lot of sense.

“When you pick a team, you’re picking a team based on 12 players that you’re going to play. Now suddenly if you make it 11, there could be a team which is obviously not as strong as a 12 but much better as an 11, and it is an unfair advantage, and it’s something that they could do away with after the end of this season.

“But in general, I do feel it was quite good at the start, but right now it’s losing the relevance and importance that it probably provided for the fans and for the players as well,” he added.

Karthik further stated that a rule should be brought before the start of the cycle and scrapped after the cycle ends, consolidating his claim of why he wants the rule to stay until 2027, which will also bring curtains to the three-year cycle.

“But I just feel that, as a rule, whatever new rule you want to bring in, you need to bring it in at the start of a cycle and do away with it at the end of a cycle if you don’t want to (continue). First of all, this impact player rule was brought in in between and then to do away with it in the middle of one, I don’t think makes sense. That’s all I would say,” he added.