IPL 2023 rule change: Rohit Sharma, Mark Boucher weigh in on new Playing Conditions

Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma welcomed the decision, while the head coach Mark Boucher called them a great innovation.

MI head coach Mark Boucher with captain Rohit Sharma. | Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI

The 2023 Indian Premier League has tweaked its playing conditions to include the Impact Player and give the teams a chance to finalise the playing eleven post the toss.

Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma welcomed the decision, while the head coach Mark Boucher said the “rule changes are good, but as a leadership group, we have to learn about making the decisions.”

Addressing the media in a pre-season interaction on Wednesday, Rohit said, “It’s interesting to have new sort of innovation coming into the game. Only time will tell what will happen and how the team copes with this new rule. I like having an impact player coming in and changing your team after the toss.”

Mumbai Indians will play its first match against Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 2. Rohit feels his team will have a better idea about how to approach the new rules by then. “Luckily for us, our first game comes in late, and by then, other teams would have played their first game, so we can watch what they do and how beneficial it is for the teams.”

Meanwhile, Boucher called the rule changes a “great innovation. We are going to have to learn. I have no problem with the changing of the teams after the toss. It is going to be a level playing field after the toss - if you do lose the toss, especially in India, where there is the dew factor. So you just have to adjust,” he said.

“If (say), these sort of two rules that would have changed straight away and say this year we are going to have an impact player, and next year we are going to change the rule of the toss, it might have been a little bit different. But both rules have changed now, and it is going to have an impact.”

Agreeing with captain Rohit, Boucher also stressed that the 12th player would be a bonus. “You have got 11 cricketers, and you will try to select the best 11 cricketers that you have. The 12th player is just a bonus. When he (Rohit) goes out to the toss, he will have the team sheet with which would want to bat first or bowl first with. I am pretty sure that is going to be pretty much the same team. You select the best players; the impact player is just a bonus player,” Boucher said.

“You just get him in, as the word says, to have a major impact on the game.”