Gujarat Titans skipper Hardik Pandya won the first toss of the IPL 2023 when the defending champions went head-to-head against the mighty Chennai Super Kings at the iconic Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.
The IPL 2023 also sees, for the first time in the competition’s history, the Impact Player rule. The BCCI has decided to introduce this new rule as it believes this will add a new tactical, strategic dimension to the game. A number of team sports in the world like football, rugby, basketball, and baseball allow teams to make tactical substitutions where the substitute is allowed to perform or participate like any other regular player.
Every captain will have to nominate 4 substitutes and any one of them can be used as the team’s Impact Player and can bring that player into play at any time in the match – be it before the start of the second innings of the match; at the end of an over; at the fall of a wicket or when a batter retires.
Here are the playing XIs of both CSK and GT and their 4 substitutes for the Impact Player:
Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Wriddhiman Saha(w), Shubman Gill, Kane Williamson, Hardik Pandya(c), Vijay Shankar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Joshua Little, Yash Dayal, Alzarri Joseph
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Ambati Rayudu, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w/c), Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Rajvardhan Hangargekar
Gujarat Titans Subs: B Sai Sudharsan, Jayant Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Abhinav Manohar, KS Bharat
Chennai Super Kings Subs: Tushar Deshpande, Subhranshu Senapati, Shaik Rasheed, Ajinkya Rahane, Nishant Sindhu
Can an overseas player be used as Impact Player in IPL 2023?
If a team starts with 4 overseas players in the XI, then an overseas player can’t be brought in as Impact Player. But, if a team picks 3 or fewer overseas players in their XI, then an overseas player can replace an Indian player as Impact Player.
This is to adhere to the rule of a maximum of 4 overseas players for a team per game, something the IPL has followed since its inception.
