Marcus Stoinis has backed the Indian Premier League (IPL)’s decision to allow the team bowling second in an evening match to change the ball once at any point after the 10th over.

The Australian all-rounder, who will represent Punjab Kings in this edition of the tournament, described it as a “great decision.”

“The changing of the ball halfway through the second innings is a great decision because the dew does play a big part in that stage of the game. So, it is something that hopefully does make it more of an even contest and the teams become less reliant on the toss,” Stoinis opined while speaking to Sportstar.

Previously, umpires had the discretion to change the ball if they deemed it too wet due to dew. However, under the new rule, the bowling team can now request a ball change at any time between overs 11 and 20 of the second innings, and the umpires must grant the request.

“It’s exciting,” he said. “The batting is going from strength to strength, but also the wickets have been very good. It makes bowling tough, but it also sets apart the bowlers. It sets apart the guys like the Bumrahs (Jasprit Bumrah) of this world, not that there are many of them, but it shows how good they are because it shows that they're executing their skill more frequently than anyone else in the world."

"But then also, I think the scores in the last edition of the IPL were very high," said the 35-year-old Stoinis, who retired from ODIs last month.