India captain also says IPL's 'Impact-Player' rule is affecting development of allrounders
India captain
Rohit Sharma
has said he is not averse to playing
Test cricket
against Pakistan on neutral soil even as political tensions continue to rob fans of a bilateral Test series between the two neighbours.
Speaking on the YouTube show 'Club Praire Fire' hosted by former Australia captain
Adam Gilchrist
and former England skipper Michael Vaughan, Rohit said, "At the end of the day, we want to be in contest and I think it will be a great contest between the two sides (India and Pakistan).
"We play them in ICC trophies anyway, so it doesn't really matter. It's just pure cricket that I'm looking at. I'm not interested in anything else."
The last Test between India and Pakistan was played in December 2007 at Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium. "I totally believe that," Rohit said while responding to Vaughan's question on whether, for the sake of the health of Test cricket, it would be beneficial for both India and Pakistan to play at a neutral venue.
Rohit complimented Pakistan's bowling skills and said he wanted Indian to be tested against them. "They're a good team. They've got a superb bowling lineup, so it'll be a good contest especially if you play in overseas conditions. That'll be awesome," Rohit said.
Last year, India refused to travel to Pakistan for the
Asia Cup
and all of their games were rescheduled in Sri Lanka instead. Next year's
ICC Champions Trophy
- slated to be hosted by Pakistan - will likely be another sticking point. ICC guidelines, incidentally, don't force member nations to disregard government advisory.
Rohit's candid take on the controversial issue is rare for an Indian cricketer of his stature. Even Indian cricket board (BCCI) officials usually stick to the line that the matter is up to the government to decide.
'Not a big fan of impact player'
Rohit also said on the same show that the IPL's 'impact player' rule - introduced in 2023 to allow teams to rope in the services of an additional player as a replacement after the toss has been completed - is going to impede the emergence of multi-skilled players from India.
"The impact-player rule is going to hold back the development of allrounders because cricket is played by 11 players and not 12. I'm not a big fan of impact player. You are taking out so much from the game just to make it little entertaining for the people. But if you look at just the cricketing aspect, I can give you so many examples - guys like
Washington Sundar
, Shivam Dube are not getting to bowl, which for the Indian team is not a good thing."
As Indian captain, who will be leading the team to the West Indies and USA for the T20 World Cup, Rohit wants more allround options at his disposal. As of now, India have only three genuine contenders for the allrounder's role -
Hardik Pandya
(dodgy fitness),
Ravindra Jadeja
and Axar Patel (both spin-bowling allrounders).
Rohit was skeptical about the impact player rule even last year when he was leading the franchise. "I don't know whether it will impact an allrounder," Rohit had said.
"An allrounder will always be an allrounder. No matter what stage of the game, it will give you an option of bowling him any time, making him bat anytime. Yes, with that 12th player, you can always fill that gap and have that balance of a fifth or sixth bowler or even an extra batter."
Incidentally, there have been 93 hundreds scored in the IPL since 2008 and 18 of them have come since the introduction of the 'impact player' rule. Also, since the rule has been introduced, there has been only one instance of a chasing team losing a game in spite of a batter scoring a hundred: Rohit Sharma's 105 vs CSK recently.
Also, there was only one 250-plus score in 15 seasons of the IPL prior to 2023 - RCB's 263-5 vs Pune Warriors in 2013. Since the introduction of the rule in 2023, there have been four totals more than 250. Three of them have come this season.
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