Allow five overseas players in a playing XI in the IPL: Aakash Chopra

The next edition of the IPL is all set to introduce two new teams in the tournament. Ahead of the next season, former India cricketer and commentator Aakash Chopra has suggested a change that can be adopted in the next IPL. According to him, the franchises should be allowed to include five overseas players in the playing XI.

Recently, the BCCI announced the two new teams that would feature in the next edition. RPSG Group secured the Lucknow franchise for ₹7,090 crores whereas CVC bagged Ahmedabad for ₹5,625 crores. Chopra thus analyzed the changes that would come with the addition of the two new teams.

According to him, owing to the retention policy, the new teams might not be left with some strong options when it comes to choosing Indian players. This might prove to be a slight disadvantage for the teams. Chopra feels that if five foreign players are allowed to take the charge of the field it will benefit the new franchises and they can then build their Indian core gradually.

Franchises can utilize more overseas players and build their Indian core gradually: Aakash Chopra

“Allow five overseas players in a playing XI in the IPL. Right now we have four and I think it dilutes the competition a bit. Five overseas players should be allowed to feature in a playing XI. Of course, franchises can field eleven Indians if they want, but I feel at least there should be the option of allowing five overseas cricketers to feature in the playing XI. Whether or not they play is a different matter altogether.

“If a particular franchise has not been able to pick too many good Indian players, this will come in handy. For example, if each team is allowed to retain three players ahead of the auction and all of them retain three Indian players each, that makes it a total of 24 Indian cricketers who will not be available for the auction. If so, from where will the two new teams pick good Indian players?

“Obviously, nobody can stop the franchises from retaining players. So the new franchises may have money, but they might not be able to put together good teams due to a lack of options. In such a case, these franchises can utilize more overseas players and build their Indian core gradually,” Aakash Chopra said on his Youtube channel.