As the ongoing Women’s Premier League (WPL) is about to end, fans are eagerly waiting for the commencement of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. The 16th season of the cash-rich league will begin with a blockbuster clash between 4-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and previous edition’s winners, Gujarat Titans (GT), on March 31.
Ahead of the beginning of IPL 2023, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCC) has made some changes in the rules and playing conditions. The apex board has decided to tweak the playing conditions to make the toss irrelevant.
According to a report in ESPNCricinfo, the new IPL playing conditions will allow the captains to walk in with two different team sheets. It will permit them to change their playing XI depending upon the decision at the toss – if they are batting first or bowling first – and make the toss close to irrelevant.
“Currently, the captains have to exchange the teams before the toss. This has been changed to an exchange of teams immediately post the toss to enable teams to choose the best XI, depending on whether they are batting or bowling first. It will also assist the teams to plan for the impact player,” read the playing conditions mentioned in the report.
Notably, it is the second occasion when a T20 tournament would implement this rule. Recently, SA20 allowed teams to announce their XIs after the toss. In that competition, teams initially put 13 names on the sheets before announcing their final XIs after the toss.
Apart from changing the time of captains’ announcement of the playing XI, there have also been some other significant changes to the playing conditions. As per the new rules, an unfair advantage by both keeper and fielder will be declared a dead ball by the umpire, and 5 penalty runs will be added to the batting team’s total. Let’s have a look at some other tweaks to the IPL playing conditions:
- Over rate penalty of only four fielders outside the 30-yard circle for every over not completed in the allocated time.
- Unfair movement of the wicketkeeper will result in a dead ball and 5 penalty runs.
- Unfair movement by a fielder will result in a dead ball and 5 penalty runs.
