Impact Sub a good innovation: RCB head coach Flower

The Impact Sub rule might have vertically divided the opinion of players and pundits but Royal Challengers Bengaluru head coach Andy Flower, on Friday, termed it a "good innovation" as it offers tactical flexibility to teams in the IPL.

Leading voices such as India's Test and ODI skipper Shubman Gill and former captain Rohit Sharma thought the Impact Sub rule takes the skill out of the game.  "I think it has been a good innovation, it's interesting to be part of it. You're making decisions on the impact player, and I think it's interesting for the audience to debate what's right and what's wrong, so tactically it's quite an interesting addition to the game," Flower said on the eve of IPL's 2026 season-opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

At the same time, Flower also said the Impact Player rule makes the decision-making a bit tricky for the coaching staff.  "I must say that one of the things I love about cricket is that when you select an 11, one of the challenges you have is balancing your 11 - the length of the batting order, balancing, perhaps, some guys that can't feel that well and it's one of the things that makes selection a little bit tricky.

"The impact player rule hides that selection problem a little, so I think one of the great things about cricket is some of the debates around selection and when you select single-skilled players, you weaken another area of your game, the impact player can hide that, so there are pros and cons I think to it," he added.

From an RCB perspective, deciding on the 11 can be a bit of a hustle because of the non-availability of lead pacer Josh Hazlewood.

Hazlewood, who was RCB's top wicket-taker in IPL 2025, landed in Bengaluru on Thursday night but Flower said the management is keeping a close watch on the Australian's fitness. 

"Hazlewood did arrive yesterday, he's looking fit. I did comment to him that he looks even younger than I remember. So, he's enjoyed some good downtime but he's worked hard to get himself back up to full fitness. We've been liaising closely with Cricket Australia on his fitness. So, it's great to have him in our dressing room and in the meetings.

"But he won't be ready for tomorrow, he's just got off the plane, but we'll be monitoring his fitness very closely and looking forward to him making his entrance into the IPL," he said.

Flower, however, hoped that the backup options will cover-up for Hazlewood's absence in the interim.

"Yash (Dayal) is not with us this unfortunately.

So, we have Mangesh, Abhi and Rasik all competing for a place. We're happy with recruiting Mangesh, a left-arm seamer to replace Yash. We're also happy with Abhinandan's progress, he's bowled a lot more in matches just recently, played with the recent DYP competition.

"I think Rasik is a better bowler than he was last year, he's obviously been working very hard and he shows a lot of qualities that could stand him in really good stead if he gets a chance in this tournament, so we're happy with those three Indian seamers," he noted.