Gujarat Titans Shubman Gill has joined the list of critics for the Impact Player rule in the IPL. Gill said the rule takes the skill out of the game. Impact Player was introduced in the IPL in the 2023 season and since then many cricket boffins have criticised the rule.

Recently, Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel also said he is not a big fan of the rule. Gill said chasing a tricky score of 160 or 180 on a challenging wicket is more exciting for him rather than chasing 220 on a flat wicket.

Gill said in the presser, “Personally for me, I don’t think there should be an impact player. I think cricket in general is an 11-players’ game and on wickets where we play on the grounds that we play, adding an extra batsman, I think it takes the skill out of the game.”

“There’s a certain skill in the game that you need to have. When you have a certain amount of batters and if a couple of your batters get out, there’s an amount of skill that you need to have to still get the scoreboard moving and get your team to a good score. With that one extra player, it’s making the game more one-dimensional and it’s taking a little bit of the skill out of the game. Chasing 180 on a challenging wicket or 160 on a challenging wicket is for me, it’s personally way more exciting than chasing 220 on a flat wicket.”

Meanwhile, Axar Patel also criticised the Impact Player rule recently.

He said, “I don’t like this rule as I am an all-rounder myself. Earlier we used to pick all-rounders for this role (batting and bowling). Now the team management goes with a particular batter or bowler, they say why do we need an all-rounder? Being an all-rounder myself I don’t like it but at the same time, rules are rules. We have to follow them. But personally, I don’t like it.”

Earlier, Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya had given a downvote to the Impact Player rule.