After Rohit Sharma, another big IPL star hits out at impact player rule

The Kolkata Knight Riders had been anticipating a match turning performance from their star pacer Mitchell Starc in the 17th season of the Indian Premier League. The ongoing tournament has been a mixed bag for the Australian pacer since he has struggled to justify his INR 24.75 Crore price tag. However in the team’s recently concluded clash against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium last night, Starc registered his second four wicket haul in the IPL. 

The recent clash between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders was a classic T20 match where both the teams were dismissed while struggling to put runs on the board. The host won the toss and chose to bowl first, Kolkata struggled to stick to the crease and Mumbai Indians bowling unit consistently picked wickets in the first innings. Venkatesh Iyer and Manish Pandey managed to put a defendable 169 runs score on the board with their 70 and 42 runs knock. 

Mitchell Starc Opines on Team’s long batting line-up after Impact Player Rule in IPL 2024 

In the post match conference, Mitchell Starc reflected on the team introducing an additional batter in their batting lineup making it difficult for the bowlers to restrict runs in IPL 2024 after the introduction of the impact player rule. 

“The Impact Player rule changes things a fair bit. Everyone gets to bat a lot deeper having a batting and a bowling XI. There's a lot made of that rule throughout the tournament and there's been a lot of high scores, which is the nature of the wickets and the grounds we play on here. When you have batters and batting all rounders come in at Nos. 8 or 9, it's a long batting line-up”, Starc discussed. 

Talking about the fearless batting style opted by the batters in the ongoing IPL during the power play, Starc added, "There's no fear in the powerplay when all you have to do is to 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. There's been some fantastic scoring, some fantastic partnerships and some individual brilliance with the bat."

The Australian speedster emphasized on making Kolkata Knight Riders lift the IPL 2024 title and the team’s upcoming challenge against Lucknow Super Giants. 

He said, "It's T20 cricket, it's not as demanding as Test match cricket. In that regard, it's a great thing to see and test your skills. In terms of length of time, that's part and parcel of international cricket. My main focus is to play in Lucknow in two days' time. The World Cup is next month - at this moment, it's [about] trying to help KKR win the tournament."

After dismissing Mumbai Indians for 145 runs, Kolkata Knight Riders remained on the number two position of the IPL 2024 points table with their 24 runs victory.