India, April 6 -- The Impact Player rule was sold as a tactical upgrade. Eleven matches into IPL 2026, it is becoming something even more revealing: a running intelligence test for team managements. Almost everyone is using it. Not everyone is using it well.

That is the real early-season story. Across the first 11 matches, teams had 22 opportunities to deploy an Impact Sub and used the option 21 times. Only the Rajasthan Royals have so far won a match without activating it at all. The rule, then, has become close to compulsory in behaviour. But the output has been far less convincing. Of those 21 substitutions, only 10 have produced a positive net swap value, nine have produced a negative one and two have been neutral. The rule is everyw...