Types Of Substitutes In Cricket

Team India’s call to replace Yuzvendra Chahal with Ravindra Jadeja as his concussion substitute in the first T20I against Australia has stirred massive controversy. The decision has not gone down well with a lot of cricket fans and experts as many believe that team India has flouted the law with this sort of a replacement. Ravindra Jadeja was substituted in the second innings of the first T20I after having smoked 44 runs off 23 balls in the first.

Today, in this article, we’ll describe in detail as to how many types of substitutions exist in the cricketing circuit, that has been approved by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Types Of Substitutes In Cricket:

1. Tactical Substitute

The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced a tactical substitute in One-Day Internationals (ODIs) in 2005. Each team was to be allowed one substitute, who had to be named before the toss was made, and could be introduced at any stage of the match.

Just a year later, the rule saw a lot of criticism by cricket experts and fans alike and it had to be scrapped in the year 2006. In 2008 the International Cricket Council tightened the regulations on the use of substitutions, saying “Substitute fielders shall only be permitted in cases of injury, illness or other wholly acceptable reasons…and should not include what is commonly referred to as a ‘comfort break'”.

2. Concussion Substitute

A voice for concussion substitute was always on the cards in international cricket. Especially in the 2000s, giant cricketing nations were concerned about their players being injured that led to the introduction of Concussion substitute.

In July 2019, the International Cricket Council (ICC) agreed to allow the use of concussion replacements in all international cricket matches from 1 August 2019, with substitute having to be a “like-for-like replacement” and approved by the Match Referee.

ICC Playing Conditions

• 1.2.8.1 In assessing whether the nominated Concussion Replacement should be considered a like-for-like player, the ICC Match Referee should consider the likely role the concussed player would have played during the remainder of the match, and the normal role that would be performed by the nominated Concussion Replacement.
• 1.2.8.2 If the ICC Match Referee believes that the inclusion of the nominated Concussion Replacement, when performing their normal role, would excessively advantage their team, the Match Referee may impose such conditions upon the identity and involvement of the Concussion Replacement as he/she sees fit, in line with the overriding objective of facilitating a like-for-like replacement for the concussed player.

3. COVID-19 Substitute

The International Cricket Council came up with a COVID-19 substitute in cricket after the widespread outbreak of Coronavirus all across the globe. The COVID-19 virus brought the cricketing fraternity to a standstill and a COVID-19 substitute in cricket was brought into effect so as to resume cricket operations smoothly.

In June 2020, ICC approved this rule. It stated that if a player was found COVID-19 positive in the middle of a series, he would be isolated on an immediate basis and would be put into quarantine. The player, who tested positive would further get disallowed from taking part in the remainder of the series