“We will only get an allrounder if IPL removes the Impact Player rule.”
Parthiv Patel, JioHotstar Match Centre, July 11, 2026
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Former India wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel, now a JioHotstar expert analyst, said this live on the match centre just before the fifth and final T20I in Southampton.
Speaking on JioStar the previous day, he connected it to a decade of waiting on two names that India have never been able to replace:
“For the past 10 years, we’ve been saying the same thing, everything will be fine when Jasprit Bumrah comes back. Everything will be alright when Hardik Pandya returns. But it’s been 10 years, and we still haven’t found a replacement for either Hardik Pandya or Jasprit Bumrah. The biggest reason behind that is the IPL’s Impact Player rule. Bumrah is a different case, but India will not be able to find the all-rounder they are looking for until the Impact Player rule is removed from the IPL.”
Parthiv Patel, JioStar, July 10, 2026
The Impact Player rule, introduced in IPL 2023, allows each team to substitute one player mid-match from a pre-named list of five. When a team needs runs, a specialist batsman comes in. When a team needs wickets, a specialist bowler comes in. The game creates no moment that asks for someone who can do both.
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That removal of the dual-skill moment is where the real damage sits. An allrounder earns selection because no captain knows exactly what a match will demand. That uncertainty is what gives the dual-skill player their value. The Impact Player rule removes that uncertainty entirely. Teams now plan for two separate substitution moments, one for batting and one for bowling, each with a purpose-built replacement ready in the dugout. The allrounder has no place in that plan.
The deeper problem is what this has done to the development pipeline. Players rising through state cricket and franchise trials look at the IPL as the template for what gets you selected. For years, that template rewarded someone who could bat at six and bowl four overs, a player who could be used across multiple phases without needing a substitution. Since 2023, that template has shifted. A bowler now competes against pure specialists who do nothing else. A batsman competes the same way. Nobody is being shortlisted for doing two things reasonably well. The development brief changed at the level where allrounders are actually built, years before an India selector ever starts looking. By the time the search begins at national level, the pipeline that once produced those players has already been redirected.
Parthiv is not the first senior voice to raise this. Axar Patel, one of India’s most prominent allrounders, said at the start of IPL 2026 that franchise management now openly ask why they need an allrounder when two players with defined roles can cover the same ground. Rohit Sharma has said the rule will hold back allrounders because cricket is played by 11 players, not 12. Sachin Tendulkar, speaking at the ESPNcricinfo awards in May, said the rule needs to go, pointing to the imbalance created by adding an effective extra batter to a format already heavily weighted toward scoring.
The BCCI confirmed in March 2026 that the rule will remain in place until at least IPL 2027. Reports from June suggest franchise owners have since raised concerns, and a review may come earlier than expected.
Sources:
- Parthiv Patel, JioHotstar Match Centre, July 11, 2026 direct broadcast observation; corroborated by PTI via The Federal, July 10, 2026
- Sachin Tendulkar, ESPNcricinfo awards, Ahmedabad, May 31, 2026 The Daily Star
