Australian ace pacer Mitchell Starc thinks Impact Player rule has played a significant part in bowlers’ poor numbers in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL).

Starc, who has been one of the most expensive bowlers in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, contributed to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeating Mumbai Indians (MI) by four wickets on May 3 (Friday) at the Wankhede Stadium.

Starc, who concluded with 4/33, including three wickets in the 19th over, believes that the Impact Player rule instills no fear in the batters. "The Impact Player rule changes things a fair bit. Everyone gets to bat a lot deeper having a batting and a bowling XI. There's a lot made of that rule throughout the tournament and there's been a lot of high scores, which is the nature of the wickets and the grounds we play on here. When you have batters and batting allrounders come in at Nos. 8 or 9, it's a long batting line-up,” Starc said at the press conference.

"There's no fear in the powerplay when all you have to do is to clear the infield and score runs. Certainly, there has been some really good batting, don't get me wrong, it's not just the rules that play a part there. There's been some fantastic scoring, some fantastic partnerships and some individual brilliance with the bat."

Then Starc talked about his bowling against Mumbai Indians. He said that he didn’t change things too much rather he just assessed the conditions. "I haven't changed too much," he said. "It's about assessing conditions after the first innings. We certainly spoke about it and the batters that came off throughout that first innings mentioned the wicket and the lengths that were the hardest to face. That created the bowling plans for us,” Starc added.

"As T20 cricket doesn't always go the way you want it to go, and of course I wanted to go a bit better at the start. But I am not the only bowler going for runs. It is what it is. The fact that we sit second on the points table and are building towards the more important games at the back end and are playing some good cricket, hopefully I can be a part of it too."