14 Years After RCB's Chris Gayle Scoop, IPL's Replacement Player Rule Under Scanner After Teams Expose Loophole

The 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) player replacement rules have come under the scanner after a series of signings by the team in the last few days, with less than three weeks left for the final to be played on May 25 in Kolkata.

Quite remarkably, it is the teams that are already knocked out of the competition that have made multiple signings as Chennai Super Kings (CSK) added Ayush Mhartre, Dewald Brevis, and Urvil Patel to their line-up. Rajasthan Royals (RR) signed Lhuan-de Pretorius and Nande Burger. The Sunrisers signed Smaran Ravichandran, who got injured before they signed Harsh Dubey. Delhi Capitals (DC) confirmed the signing of Seddiqullah Attal instead of Harry Brook, two months after the England ODI and T20I revealed he will not play IPL 2025.

A sudden rise in signings from the teams has come in the last week, due to IPL rules allowing teams to sign replacements before the 12th match of the league stage. While a few teams have already played their 12th game, some will play it in the next few days.

No, the rule has existed since the first season and allowed teams to replace injured players with cricketers who had registered for the auction but went unsold. Famously, RCB signed Chris Gayle in 2011 after an injury to Dirk Nannes and went on to change the franchise's fortunes and become arguably the overseas player the league has ever seen.

Infact, RCB acquired current captain Rajat Patidar in a similar manner as he replaced the injured Lulvinth Sissodia in the 2022 season.

The flurry of mid-season signings, especially by struggling teams has raised the question of whether the IPL need to change the replacement player rules. Essentially, a lot has changed since the mega auction and teams have managed to sign top performers of the Syed Mushtaq Ali (SMAT) trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT), and the SA 20 without entering the auction.

This has allowed franchises to lock in a player without entering a fight for him in the auction and sign him for their base price, while a few of the replacements were set to spark a big bidding war.

The loophole comes from the fact that teams can now retain both the replacement players they signed and the players were injured. For example, a team like CSK can keep hold of skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad as well as his replacement Ayush Mhatre ahead of the 2026 season by releasing other players and creating enough space in their budget within the salary cap.

Quite incredible, a team like SRH will be able to retain Smaran Ravichandran, who came as an injury replacement for Adam Zampa but later got injured himself without playing a match and was replaced by Harsh Dubey. Infact, SRH can retain all three of Smaran, Zampa, and Dubey

The signings made by CSK and RR have little to do with this season as their campaign is already over but instead are a clear sign of future squad building. Moreover, it has allowed teams to replace Indian players with overseas names (Brevis for Gujanpreet Singh, de Pretorius for Nitish Rana, Burger for Sandeep Sharma) if teams have the space for an extra overseas player in their squad within the eight-player limit. Both these factors have raised questions about whether the rule need to be looked at.

The question is whether the rule is needed in the first place when the teams had the ability to build a full 25-man squad in the auction, and if one injury warrants a replacement? Once the rule is in place, is allowing teams to sign a player as late as the last week of the league stage fair? Lastly, should teams be allowed to remain an injury replacement for the following season?

Is a change needed? And if yes, is it fair to do it now, 14 years after RCB's stunning Gayle scoop?

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