The Concussion Substitute Rule in Cricket Explained: How It Is Scored, and What Changed in 2025

A fielder takes a blow to the head diving for a catch, is helped off, and a completely different player walks out later to bat in their place. That is not a substitute fielder covering a bathroom break — it is a concussion substitute, and it is one of the very few situations in cricket where a team is allowed to change a member of its playing XI mid-match. The replacement can bat, bowl, keep wicket, and be dismissed, exactly like the player they came in for.

The rule has existed since 2019, but the ICC rewrote large parts of it in 2025 after a run of “was that really like-for-like?” controversies, and the rewritten version was tested again live during the 2026 IPL season. Here is what the rule actually allows, what changed, and — the part most rules explainers skip — exactly what a scorer needs to write down when it happens.

What a Concussion Substitute Actually Is

A concussion substitute is a full, permanent replacement for a player who has been removed from the field with a suspected or confirmed head or neck injury. Once approved by the match referee, the substitute becomes a genuine member of the playing XI for the rest of the match: they can bat, bowl, field in any position, keep wicket if required, and be out in any of the usual ways. The player they replaced takes no further part in that match.

This is what separates a concussion substitute from an ordinary substitute fielder. A substitute fielder — brought on for any injury, a bathroom break, or simply to give a player a rest — can field and nothing else. They cannot bat, bowl, or captain the side, and the player they are covering for is expected to return. A concussion substitute is the opposite: the original player is gone for the match, and the replacement has full playing rights.

A Quick Timeline: 2019 to 2025

The ICC introduced concussion replacements across all international formats, plus first-class cricket, from 1 August 2019 — following a two-year domestic trial that started in Australian domestic cricket in the 2016–17 season, with the ECB adopting similar regulations for its professional domestic competitions in 2018. For several years the rule worked on a simple “like-for-like” test applied case by case: a team could bring on any replacement, and the match referee judged after the fact whether the swap was fair.

That case-by-case approach became the rule’s biggest weakness. The clearest example came during an India–England T20I series, when India replaced all-rounder Shivam Dube with specialist fast bowler Harshit Rana as a concussion substitute — Rana went on to take three wickets on debut, a genuine impact on the match that looked, to critics, like more than a like-for-like swap. Incidents like this pushed the ICC toward a structural fix rather than relying on referees to judge intent after the fact.

The 2025 Overhaul: Five Named Subs, Chosen Before the Toss

From mid-2025 (the new playing conditions were phased in from 17 June for Tests, 2 July for ODIs, and 10 July for T20Is), each team must name a list of five possible concussion substitutes before the toss — one wicketkeeper, one specialist batter, one fast bowler, one spinner, and one all-rounder. If a player is concussed during the match, the team must use the correspondingly-listed player from that pre-named group, rather than choosing after the fact who looks like the best “like-for-like” fit for the situation the injury has created.

If the substitute is themselves concussed later in the same match, the match referee can approve a replacement from outside the original five, applying the same like-for-like principle to that second swap. Separately, and as a player-welfare measure rather than a scoring rule, anyone diagnosed with a concussion during a match must now sit out a minimum seven-day stand-down period before playing again at all.

How a Concussion Substitute Is Scored

This is the part a general “what is a concussion sub” explainer usually skips, and it is the one a scorer actually needs on match day. From the moment the substitution is approved:

• The outgoing player’s card is closed exactly where they left it — any runs scored or overs bowled before the injury stand, and nothing further is added for the rest of the match. They are not “not out” in any special sense; their innings or spell simply ends there, the same as if they had retired hurt and never returned.
• The incoming substitute is entered as a full new line on the scorecard, batting or bowling under their own name from that point forward. Any runs, wickets, or catches are credited to them individually — not folded into the outgoing player’s figures.
• The substitute is not treated as a 12th man for team-sheet purposes going forward — they occupy the injured player’s spot in the XI for what remains of the match, and the side still fields (or bats) eleven players at any one time.

That is a meaningfully different scoring outcome from retired hurt, where the same batter simply pauses their innings and can come back later with their own runs still intact. CricPulse’s guide to retired hurt vs retired out covers that side of the picture — the two situations look similar from the boundary (a player leaves the field) but land completely differently on the card.

Concussion Substitute vs Other Replacements, at a Glance

The IPL’s own Impact Player rule, introduced in 2023, is the one most often confused with the concussion substitute — both let a team bring on a completely new player who can bat and bowl. The difference is that Impact Player substitutions are a tactical tool available once per match for any reason, capped by IPL playing conditions, while a concussion substitute is a worldwide safety rule that can only be triggered by a genuine head or neck injury. CricPulse’s guide to powerplay rules covers how teams actually use the Impact Player tactically.

The 2026 IPL Case Study: Santner, Thakur, and the “Like-for-Like” Question

The rewritten rule was tested live within a year. In IPL 2026’s Match 33 between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium (23 April 2026) — a match CSK went on to win by 103 runs, built around Sanju Samson’s unbeaten century — Mitchell Santner left the field after diving to complete a catch. Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene said afterwards that while the visible injury was to Santner’s shoulder, he had also struck his head and neck on the way down and reported dizziness once back in the dugout: “I think he hit his head first, neck, obviously the shoulder as well… he felt that he wasn’t stable, so they took him for a scan and requested a concussion substitute.”

The match referee approved Shardul Thakur, a specialist seam-bowling all-rounder, as Santner’s concussion substitute, and Thakur came in to bat in the same innings. The decision drew scrutiny for the same underlying reason the 2025 rule change exists — Santner is primarily a left-arm spinner who also bats, and pundits and fans questioned whether a fast-bowling all-rounder was a genuinely like-for-like swap for a specialist spinner, even though both fall under the broad “all-rounder” category the pre-named list uses. It is a useful real-world reminder that naming five broad roles before the toss narrows the room for a favourable after-the-fact pick, but does not remove every judgment call — the match referee still has to decide whether the specific player named against a role is a fair swap for the specific player who went off.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a concussion substitute’s runs and wickets count in the official statistics?
Yes, in full. Unlike a substitute fielder, a concussion substitute is treated as having played the match from that point on — any runs scored, wickets taken, or catches held go on their own career record exactly as if they had started the game.

Is a concussion substitute the same as the IPL’s Impact Player?
No, and they are frequently confused. A concussion substitute exists in every format worldwide and can only be used after a genuine, medically confirmed head or neck injury. The IPL’s Impact Player is a tournament-specific rule that lets a team make one tactical substitution per match for any reason, injury or not.

Can any player replace a concussed player?
No. The replacement must be a like-for-like player approved by the match referee, and since the 2025 change, must come from a list of five subs (a wicketkeeper, a batter, a fast bowler, a spinner, and an all-rounder) that each team names before the toss. A player from outside that list can only be used if the match referee approves it as an exceptional case.

Does the concussed player get to return to the field once recovered?
Not in that match. The concussion substitute is a full replacement, not a temporary stand-in — the original player takes no further part once the substitution is approved. Separately, since 2025, a player diagnosed with concussion must sit out a minimum seven-day stand-down period before playing again at all.

How is a concussion substitute recorded differently from retired hurt?
Retired hurt keeps the same batter in the game — they simply pause their innings and can return later, with their own runs staying on the card. A concussion substitute removes that player from the match entirely and brings in a different player, whose contributions are recorded separately under their own name.

Why was the concussion substitute rule changed in 2025?
After several incidents where the replacement player’s role looked noticeably different from the player they replaced — most visibly India’s T20I series against England, where all-rounder Shivam Dube was replaced by specialist bowler Harshit Rana, who went on to take three wickets — the ICC required teams to name their five possible concussion subs before the toss, removing the ability to pick a favourable replacement after seeing how the injury changed the match situation.

How CricPulse Fits In

CricPulse doesn’t have a dedicated “concussion substitute” button, because the rule itself is simpler under the hood than it looks: a new player joins the XI and takes over a role for the rest of the match. That is exactly what adding a player mid-match and handing them the strike or the ball already does in CricPulse — add the substitute to your squad, set them as striker, non-striker, or bowler, and every run and wicket from that point on is recorded under their own name and their own player profile, with the outgoing player’s card closed exactly where they left off. No re-entering a match from scratch, no manually splitting one player’s figures into two. Free on iOS and Android.