MS Dhoni criticises impact player rule in IPL 2025

Former India and Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni recently came forward and slammed the impact player rule in the IPL. For the unversed, the impact player rule allows a team to sub in a player with a specialised skill set in place of another player in the playing XI as the situation demands it.

The rule had been introduced in the IPL 2023 and has been heavily discussed ever since. Since the implementation of the rule, the matches have been heavily high-scoring encounters, and speaking of the same, MS Dhoni opined that the tournament was already entertaining enough; there was no need to spice it up further. 

"When it first came out, I said one thing that IPL is in such a good position, aur koi masala daalne ki zaroorat nahi hai (there's no need to spice it up further). Games were already quite high-scoring, they were going well, and the matches were quite competitive. We have seen it often in this format that matches end in five overs — you lose too many



wickets, fail to make proper runs and the opposition wins easily," Dhoni told JioHostar. 

"If you lose a few wickets early, more often than not you are out of the game. So, when this rule came, I felt it was not really needed at this point of time because TRP is up, the quality of cricket is good, good players were coming up but it was implemented," he elaborated.

Furthermore, Dhoni talked about whether it is due to the impact player rule that the matches have become high-scoring. He also gave his opinion on whether the impact player rule helped him or not.

"In a way, it helps me but it still doesn't help me because I still do my keeping so I am not an impact player, I have to be involved in the game. Also, some people are saying that because of the impact player rule, games have become high-scoring. I think it is due to conditions. The extra batter gives you comfort. It's not like because of that extra batter, you have scored a lot," said Dhoni.