In theory, using the Impact Player should be straightforward. If you bat first, you ensure you have genuine batting ability down to No. 8, and then pull out a batter and bring in a bowler at the change of innings. This should mean you have five proper bowlers, and hopefully one of the batters is good enough to fill in as a sixth option. If you bowl first, you do the opposite.

Sometimes, though, a situation arises where the decision becomes a little more complicated. Rajasthan Royals (RR) got into one such on Sunday night against Delhi Capitals (DC). From 160 for 2 at the start of the 15th over, they lost four wickets in a heap, and found themselves six down with 19 balls remaining.

On the night, RR chose to bring in the batting allrounder Dasun Shanaka, probably believing they needed a proper six-hitter at the crease to give themselves a chance of setting a challenging target.

Here's the thing, though. They chose to make that call when Jofra Archer was still to bat. You definitely wouldn't call Archer an allrounder, but he is certainly a good-enough lower-order hitter to send in with only 19 balls remaining. Since his debut season in 2018, only four batters in the IPL have hit more sixes than his 16 while batting at No. 8 or below. Two of them - MS Dhoni and Ashutosh Sharma - are genuine batters. The other two are Pat Cummins and Rashid Khan.

Archer's numbers are pretty much in the same ballpark as those two. But somehow, his batting talent tends to get underutilised - not just in the IPL but in international cricket too, though in that case it's mostly because England have been blessed with a plethora of bowling allrounders during his career.

Here, in bringing Shanaka in even before Archer had batted, RR were making a massive call. They were foregoing the choice of a genuine bowler - probably either legspinner Ravi Bishnoi or left-arm seamer Sushant Mishra - for the notional extra runs Shanaka could score in the limited time left in their innings - for the record, he scored 10 off eight balls.

It was an even more massive call on this day, because they were missing the all-round ability of Ravindra Jadeja. The man playing in his place, Ravi Singh, was a specialist batter.

Now, this wasn't the reason why RR lost the game. Certainly not the sole or primary reason. And on another day, Shanaka may well have played a match-winning cameo.

But the timing of the Shanaka decision hugely affected RR's flexibility with the ball. The medium-paced Shanaka, who hadn't bowled at all in his two previous games this season, had to take on the responsibility of being RR's fifth bowler. Under those circumstances, he did a pretty good job, finishing with a sub-10 economy rate in his three overs and taking the wicket of DC's top-scorer KL Rahul.

It was telling, however, that he only bowled three overs. When the 18th over dawned, RR had one over each left from frontline quicks Brijesh Sharma and Adam Milne, and one from Shanaka. If they had bowled these three, Shanaka would have probably been held back until the final over, in the hope that the other two could squeeze DC enough to give him a cushion of runs to defend.

RR decided not to use Shanaka. Instead, with two left-hand batters at the crease in Axar Patel and David Miller, they threw the ball to the part-time offspinner Donovan Ferreira with DC needing 35 off 18 balls. The move didn't come off, with Miller and Axar hitting a six each in a 16-run 18th over.

"Ferreira wasn't a gamble," RR captain Riyan Parag said in his post-match interview. "I know on TV it looks like a gamble, but then you've got two left-handers [at the crease], I'd rather bowl Donovan than take a chance and get Shanaka to bowl another over. Didn't really work out."

That Parag viewed a fourth over from Shanaka as too much of a risk was revealing.

This was by no means the first debatable impact player call of IPL 2026. Chennai Super Kings (CSK), for instance, made a similar choice in their first match of the season against RR, bringing in a specialist batter in Sarfaraz Khan when they were three down inside the fourth over. Mumbai Indians have twice substituted bowlers while defending totals and not used them at all - Shardul Thakur against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Raghu Sharma against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) have often named bat-first XIs with Mohammed Shami slotted at No. 8, and been forced to sub in a recognised batter such as Shahbaz Ahmed or George Linde after losing too many wickets too quickly.

Naturally, these were all decisions taken in defeat by teams that have spent most or all of the season in the bottom half of the table. Debatable tactical calls tend not to stick in the memory when the team making them wins. And winning teams tend not to get into situations where they need to gamble on less-than-optimal choices.

It will rankle RR that they got into such a situation in a game they had dominated for its first 14 overs. In a way, this game was a microcosm of their season, which they began with four victories on the bounce before falling away with only two wins in their next eight games. They are now outside the top four and need a serious form reversal to get back in it with two games left. For that to happen, RR may need to smarten up in many areas, tactics among them.