Mumbai: Kolkata Knight Riders’ pacer Mitchell Starc has stated that the impact player has played a role in teams scoring huge totals this season. IPL 2024 has been a run-fest so far with Teams scoring 200-plus runs on multiple occasions. Especially, Sunrisers Hyderabad have posted mammoth totals on the scoreboard on multiple occasions doing so in five games out of the 10 they have played so far. The franchise has also posted totals like 277, 287 and 266. Reflecting on this season witnessing so many high-scoring encounters, Starc remarked that the impact player is allowing the team to play with a deep batting unit.
"The impact player rule changes things a fair bit. Everyone gets to bat a lot deeper having a batting and a bowling XI," Starc told the media after KKR defeated Mumbai Indians by 24 runs here on Friday.
"I guess there's a lot made of that rule and there's been a lot of high scores, which is the nature of the wickets and the grounds we play on here. Impact player rule has had a fair part to play in that, when you are going to have batters and batting all-rounders come in at Nos 8 or 9, it's a long batting lineup.”
“There's no fear in the powerplay when all you have to do is clear the infield and score runs. Certainly, there has been some really good batting, don't get me wrong, it's not just the rules that play a part there." The T20 World Cup is set to kick off from June 1 and Starc said that the captains will have to think tactically as there will be no impact rule player will be in place.
"There's been some fantastic scoring, some fantastic partnerships and some individual brilliance with the bat. On the flip side, time (will) tell, we got the World Cup coming next month, there's no impact player rule,” he added.
“Whether that affects the scores, is yet to be seen. It probably will. There's been talk about the balance of the team and when you can't just bring someone in, your all-rounders come back into play, certainly world-class all-rounders that balance the team now.”
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