Shardul says ‘there is no point having two separate NRRs in the group stage and the Super League phase’.
| Photo Credit: SANDEEP SAXENA
After defending champion Mumbai crashed out of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy despite winning two out of its three games in the Super League phase, captain Shardul Thakur expressed his disappointment over the Net Run Rate (NRR) rule in the tournament.
According to the rules, the NRR was counted from scratch for the Super League. And, after three Super League games, if multiple teams were on equal points, then instead of looking at the head-to-head figures, the NRR was taken into consideration.
That hurt teams like Mumbai, Hyderabad and Andhra.
“It wasn’t a disappointing campaign for us at all because we have played very good cricket in the whole tournament, and we have just dropped two games. [As] Hyderabad [lost], it was because of that stupid rule of revising NRR again in the Super League,” Shardul told The Hindu.
“Before reaching the finals, you cannot revise the NRR rule again. It’s like playing two different tournaments. There is no point having two separate NRRs in the group stage and the Super League phase. In such a case, no matter how many games you win, you could still go out of the tournament. And that happened. So, it’s really unfair on the teams that are doing well,” Shardul said.
“It definitely needs to be thought of, and I feel that the NRR should be uniform from game one until the end of the Super League to give the teams a level-playing field,” he emphasised.
Published – December 17, 2025 06:09 pm IST
