LOMROR ACES ‘WEIRD’ ROLE OF IMPACT PLAYER

On a balmy Monday night, Mahipal Lomror gave Royal Challengers Bengaluru two tantalising options — an ‘Impact Player’ who can yank the match away from the opposition and a potential successor to Dinesh Karthik, their designated finisher who is playing his last IPL season.

Lomror, who replaced Yash Dayal during the chase of 177 as Impact sub, made an eight-ball 17 and assisted Karthik (28, 10b) in knocking off 47 runs in 22 balls that powered RCB to a four-wicket win over Punjab Kings.

But his maiden foray into the world of ‘Impact Players’ taught Lomror how ‘weird’ that role could be, particularly because of its hurried nature.

“To be honest, it (being an Impact Player) was quite weird when I went into bat. The Impact Player rule is such that you have to be ready as you can get a call at any time to go in,” said Lomror in the post-match press conference.

However, the 24-year-old said the RCB management had communicated the possibility of him being used as the substitute player against Punjab.

“As the name suggests, you have to make an impact on the game from the word go. The management had discussed it last night. They told me: ?If we are chasing, we might use you down the order.’ So mentally, I was prepared.”

During the IPL 2023, RCB had availed the ‘Impact Player’ option in 12 matches out of 14, and Anuj Rawat came in twice as the No. 8 finisher, similar to what Lomror did against PBKS at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

On the other 10 occasions, it was either a bowler or a top/middle-order batter who walked in as ‘Impact Player.’

However, Rawat could not make the desired impact as he could score only 16 runs off 27 balls in those two games.

Perhaps, that failed experiment prompted the RCB thinktank to give that duty to the bighitting Lomror in this IPL.

The Rajasthan-born player, who joined Royal Challengers ahead of IPL 2022 from Rajasthan Royals, was ready for the grind too as it was his best chance to get a place in the eleven.