[WATCH] ENG vs IND 2025: Naseer Hussain expresses his views on Injury substitutes in cricket

Since Rishabh Pant’s injury news broke out, that the wicket-keeper batter had been ruled out for the next six weeks and will miss the remainder of the Test series and could miss the upcoming Asia Cup 2025, lots of discussions have started on the ICC allowing the teams' substitution to replace their injured players.

The former England captain, Nasser Hussain, has highlighted that he would not like to see the law come into effect, given that he feels that the players and teams would then start to use it to their advantage, as he pointed out the issues around the concussion substitutes have on many occasions in the past.

See Also: Breaking News!! Rishabh Pant’s latest injury update revealed for ENG vs IND 4th Test in Manchester

‘I am not a fan of that, to be honest. If you have to make any changes to the playing conditions and the law, players use that to their advantage. You can use the substitute to your advantage. If it’s a like-for-like substitute, like the concussion substitutes, then maybe. But even with concussion substitute, we have seen occasionally some odd changes.’

Watch: Nasser Hussain expresses his view on injury substitute

The Chennai-born pointed out that there would be a time when a team, after four days, would look to replace their off-spinner with a leg spinner, and suddenly, out of nowhere, the former would pick up an odd injury to get replaced. And that would break the balance of the format in the future.

‘So you can have four days of game, and suddenly you want a different type of spinner. You may want to replace a finger spinner with a wrist spinner. And then, miraculously, your finger spinner would have a hammy, and you swap it over. Anything you change, players will work with that and try to use it to their advantage. I am not a fan of substitution in cricket because it can be maneuvered in certain directions.’ Hussain added.

Earlier, another former captain, Michael Vaughan, argued that they should bring the substitute into the game, especially on those occasions where there is so much excitement in a series and no one wants to see a player like Rishabh Pant getting out and a team featuring in the rest of the format with 10 players.