This IPL team used two impact players in the same match!!!

Overview:

This year’s IPL has truly stood out as a ‘paradise on earth’ for the batters as they have gone on to smash a plethora of runs however, the bowlers on the contrary have found themselves in a dilapidated condition, with the league’s newly introduced impact player system adding to their prevailing difficulties.

But it’s not just the bowlers who have been critical of the league’s latest law, the allrounders playing here are equally disgruntled with the impact player rule. The simple reason being that if a team has the option to field a premier fast bowler or an unpredictable mystery spinner while they bowl, and then switch him for a hard-hitting opener/finisher during the batting innings, then why would they even consider going in with an allrounder in their playing XI, unless that player is a maestro in both the departments.

This option can be exercised only once during the entirety of a match i.e. a team gets only one opportunity to substitute a player with another.  But have you ever heard of a team using the impact player option twice during a match?? Let’s dive deeper into this conundrum.

This IPL team used two impact players in the same match!!!:

Last Sunday after watching the LSG vs KKR match, the fans were left with similar doubts in their mind, many of them couldn’t fathom what they had just witnessed. Apparently it seemed that LSG had used two impact players in the same match. At the onset of the LSG batting the viewers were awestruck when they saw two new players in Lucknow’s batting lineup instead of the one that the impact player rule permits for.  Eventually it was thought that the second new batter might have been replaced by a substitute fielder during the first innings of the match when LSG were fielding.

In pursuit of finding out exactly what had occurred during the match I checked up the first playing XI of both the teams. However there was no mention of the second new LSG batter who had come down to bat in the second innings, which brought me to the baffling conclusion that LSG had gotten away with one of the biggest shams in the history of the league(reminded me of the Sreesanth incident) by using two impact players instead of one that the rule stipulates.

But for good enough reason, I knew the reason that I had concocted is pragmatically impossible in a league like IPL especially after all the measures and checks that were put in place to ensure that tarnishing incidents like the infamous ‘spot fixing’ don’t come back to malign the league’s authenticity and brand value. Consequently, I  got down to do some more extensive research only to realize that during the first innings Mohsin Khan, the fierce fast bowler from LSG had suffered a jarring concussion due to which he couldn’t continue with his bowling and hence he was substituted by Yudhvir Singh- pretty much a like for like substitution.

However, up until that day, my general knowledge about such substitutions during an ongoing match was that the team could utilize the services of the incoming substitute player only as a fielder, but there after I came across another anomaly in this rule which stated that a concussion substitute is eligible to play and serve all the responsibilities alike any of the players in the original playing XI without any exclusion or exception.

Eventually KKR went on to vanquish LSG in the match where the Supergiants’ squad disappointed their fans both with the bat and the ball.

LSG’s somber tale in the league continues with the team struggling to outperform the opponents even in their home matches.

Here is the link to a video that will help you get an in-depth understanding of the newly introduced Impact Player rule:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAYv7C4Ln-4

Here is the link to a classic Cricwallah blog that delves deeper into LSG Captain KL Rahul’s IPL conundrum:

https://cricwallah.com/why-kl-rahul-keeps-changing-teams-while-other-ipl-legends-stay-put/