The BCCI has reportedly made a change to their injury replacement rule in Indian domestic multi-day cricket to allow for substitutions to be made for the upcoming season, after Rishabh Pant and Chris Woakes both batted through serious pain in the recently concluded Anderson-Tendulkar Test series.
The reports of the change centre on concerns over players having to play through serious injuries. In international cricket and domestic cricket around the world, full substitutions once a match has started are only allowed in cases of players suffering concussions. Players who suffer other injuries during games either continue the match despite the injury, or their side has to play the rest of the game a player down.
Earlier this year, the ICC announced that they would trial injury subs in first-class cricket for 'serious external injuries'.
What are the requirements for substitution under the BCCI's new rule?
The BCCI will reportedly add a 'Serious Injury Replacement' clause to their playing conditions for the upcoming season. "If a player sustains a serious injury during the course of the relevant match, a Serious Injury Replacement may be permitted in the following circumstance," state the new playing conditions according to CricBuzz. "The injury must have occurred due to an external blow and result in fracture/deep cuts/dislocation etc. The injury should render the player unavailable for the rest of the match.
"Onfield umpires shall be final authority to decide on the extent of serious injury and allowability of Serious Injury Replacement. They may consult the BCCI Match Referee and/or doctor available on ground.
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"The team manager shall submit a Serious Injury Replacement Request to the BCCI Match Referee, which shall: identify the player who has sustained the serious injury... and identify the requested Serious Injury Replacement, who shall be like-for-like replacement for the player who has sustained the serious injury. In all circumstances serious injury replacement players shall be from nominated substitutes at the time of the toss."
The rule change mirror both the changes to the ICC concussion sub rule following the update earlier this year, and will reportedly not apply to white-ball matches. There has been no reports of the rule being applied to the IPL.
Why are injury replacements in multi-day cricket controversial?
There were contrasting views expressed during the Anderson-Tendulkar series over whether injury replacements should be allowed in Test cricket. Following the Old Trafford Test match, in which Rishabh Pant batted in India's first innings after fracturing his foot early in the game, Ben Stokes labelled the idea of injury replacements "absolutely ridiculous".
"I think there would be too many loopholes for teams to go through," said Stokes. "Injuries are part of the game. I completely understand the concussion replacement for player welfare and player safety. But I think the conversation should honestly stop around injury replacements because, if you stick me in an MRI scanner, I could get someone else in straight away."
India head coach Gautam Gambhir, however, took a different view. "Absolutely, I'm all for it," he said when asked about a potential rule-change. "If the umpires and the match referee sees and feels that is a major injury, I think it's very important."
In the final Test of the series at the Oval, Chris Woakes came out to bat with a dislocated shoulder on the morning of day five, as both sides hunted victory. Following the game, Stokes reiterated that his stance on injury replacements had not changed. "Sorry about this, but if somebody gets injured, tough s***," he said.
Woakes also came out against injury replacements, despite being in "agony" before coming out to bat at the Oval. "I’m with Stokesy, to be honest," he said in an interview with The Guardian. "Having played for 18 years, the game is what it is: you lose a player and as a team you have to find a way. It makes you more resilient and the team stronger. I do understand why people might think it’s needed for freak injuries like mine but there would be too many grey areas or loopholes."
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