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Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir recently outlined his vision for his team in T20Is, explaining why he believes batting orders are overrated in T20Is. India are yet to lose a T20I series under Gambhir ever since the World Cup-winner began his reign as the head coach last year.
India clinched the recently concluded T20I series against Australia 2-1 after the final fifth game at The Gabba in Brisbane was washed out due to rain. India registered back-to-back victories after losing the 2nd T20I to win the series and continue their bilateral T20I series winning streak Down Under.
Opening up on his coaching philosophy in T20Is, Gambhir emphasised that impact matters more than amount of runs scored by a player in the shortest format. He also insisted that all players should remain open to changes in their batting positions, arguing that batting orders are overrates in modern-day T20 cricket.
“That has been the ideology from day one. When I took over as head coach in Sri Lanka till now, it has not changed,” Gambhir said in an interview with BCCI TV after India's 2-1 series win against Australia.
“Batting orders are very overrated, except the two openers. The rest, I think, shuffle because it’s not the amount of runs that matters in T20I cricket. It’s the impact that matters. People sometimes miscalculate or do not differentiate between runs and impact. In T20Is, it’s all about impact — it’s 120 balls, each ball is an event. And that’s why every ball needs to have the maximum impact we can have. That’s the reason, from day one, we’ve had a very fluid batting order. And that’s how we want to play this game as well," he added.
In the recently concluded T20I series against Australia, India used a flexible approach as far as their batting line-up was concerned. In the 2nd T20I in Melbourne, Harshit Rana was promoted to bat at no.7, while a more established Shivam Dube came out to bat at no.8.
There were several instances when the likes of Tilak Varma, Axar Patel and Sanju Samson interchanged positions. Captain Suryakumar Yadav also batted at no.3 and 4. The only constant in the Indian batting line-up was the opening pair of Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma, who opened the batting in all matches.
Head coach Gambhir also admitted that the Indian team is still not where he wants his side to be in terms of fitness ahead of the T20 World Cup next year. India have 10 T20Is to play ahead of the World Cup in February next year, and Gambhir wants the players to utilise the game time to be at their sharpest ahead of the showpiece event.
"From the fitness point of view, I think we still aren't where we want to be come the T20 World Cup and that is exactly the conversation that we've had with the boys as well. We want to be absolutely sharp," said Gambhir.
India will take on South Africa in a five-match T20I series next month, followed by five T20Is against New Zealand before the T20 World Cup 2026. Inda will look to keep their series winning run intact under head coach Gambhir heading into the mega event. The defending champions will start as one of the favourites in the T20 World Cup next year.
