‘It’s very interesting for coaches and captains’: KKR coach Chandrakant Pandit on IPL Impact Player rule

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) coach Chandrashekar Pandit said the new Impact Player rule for the Indian Premier League 2023 season is going to be a challenging one.
Speaking in the pre-season press conference he said, “We have been working on it, obviously (identified impact player?). It’s a challenging rule. It’s very interesting. Basically, for the coaches and captains, it’s going to be interesting. We have been thinking about that, discussing with our support staff the various options.
When it comes to the field, we have to take a decision. But yes, we are prepared for it.” he added.

Apart from playing XI, teams can bring in a substitute at any stage of the game. Teams have to name four substitutes apart from the playing XI at the toss. One of them can be brought into the XI at any time as a substitute.
“We are looking at it from every possible way. That particular day will decide and the opposition will decide our impact player,” Pandit said.
Pandit also spoke about Nitish Rana, who is made the captain of the side in the absence of Shreyas Iyer. He said, “More than selecting the captain, it is about giving responsibility and we thought that he was very capable of that. He has been at KKR for many years and he had all the boxes ticked. We are very confident in his abilities.”
“Everyone at the international level is special in their own way and it was a collective decision of the coach and support staff to hand Nitish Rana the captaincy. And everyone has received that very well,” he added.

Shreyas Iyer is set to miss the IPL due to a back injury. “Whatever little cricket I have played or coached, I have never gone back over things like squad unavailability. Shreyas’ absence will make a difference since he is important, but this is truly unfortunate,” Pundit said
Pundit further added, “We are hoping Shreyas will be back very soon and that will make a lot of difference to the team.”