Contrary to popular opinion, the much debated ‘Impact Player’ rule has proved to be a bigger nightmare for bowlers compared to the all-rounders, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed said on Friday. Shahbaz has played 12 games this season, scoring 186 runs at a strike-rate of 138 plus but his primary skill which is believed to be left-arm spin hasn’t provided rich dividends with only three wickets coming his way, that too at a below-par economy rate of 10.60.

“Now every team has in total 9 batters, an all-rounder and eight batters. Also the teams look for players, who can strike big from ball one and carry on the momentum till the end. The ‘Impact Player’ rule has affected bowlers more than all-rounders because this gives batters the cushion to play freely,” Shahbaz told PTI videos.

According to Shahbaz, the teams didn’t really understand how to use an ‘Impact Player’ during the inaugural season and as every team got a hang of it, even anchors during batting innings is starting to become obsolete.

“The teams didn’t know much about how to use it (Impact Player) last season. The all-rounders have a reduced role, which means they are getting lesser chance to bowl unlike earlier times when they used to bowl four overs.

“A lot of all-rounders are facing this. now they get to bowl one or two overs, this is true, this is visible to everyone, but I think, the batters who used to anchor games, has also gone down significantly.”

Cummins created pressure-free environment

The Bengal all-rounder was all praise for skipper Pat Cummins, who has been instrumental in keeping the SRH dressing-room stress free which has certainly shown on the on-field performance. SRH have already qualified for the last four stage with 15 points.

“If I talk about myself whenever Pat throws the ball to me, he always backs me. This sort of helps me to soak in pressure well and even if the ball goes to the boundary, he doesn’t say anything and keeps motivating all bowlers.

“He and the coach (Daniel Vettori) have created such an environment that no player in the camp ever feels that there’s any sort of pressure. The players are playing freely, we enjoy playing under his captaincy and that has what helped us to perform well”.

A lesser known fact about Shahbaz is that legendary Virat Kohli gifts him one of his bat every season.

“Virat’s bat is by far the best in terms of quality. His bat has the right balance and the ping is fabulous. In every IPL season, he has gifted me a willow. His bat really holds high value for me.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)