Visakhapatnam: India head coach Gautam Gambhir defended his frequent shuffling of the batting line-up, saying the “batting order is overrated” in white-ball formats and that flexibility remains central to his approach.
Gambhir’s decisions once again came under scrutiny during the just-concluded ODI series against South Africa, where natural opener Ruturaj Gaikwad was pushed down to No. 4 and Washington Sundar continued to be used as a floating batter. But Gambhir maintained that such moves were intentional and aligned with the team’s broader strategy.
“I think in a one-day format, you should know the template that you want to play with. I’ve always believed that in white-ball cricket, batting orders are very overrated, except the opening combination,” Gambhir said after India wrapped up the series 2–1.
“In Test cricket, obviously, you’ve got to have a fixed batting order, but it (batting order) is very, very overrated (in white ball formats),” he added.
He cited Washington Sundar as an example of the versatility the team expects.
“See, you’re talking about someone who’s got 100 at Manchester, a 50 at Oval who averages, what, 40-plus in Tests. Sometimes, you’ve got to look at balance as well. I know it’s tough on someone like Washi, but then I think he’s done an incredible job, batting at No. 3, No. 5, No. 8.
“That’s the kind of character he is, and that’s the kind of character we want in that dressing room, who are willing to do everything for the team with a smile on his face, which me as a batter knows how tough it is,” Gambhir said.
“I’m sure he’s going to continue doing that and we’re going to keep developing him because he’s got a massive future ahead for Indian cricket,” he added.
Gambhir also acknowledged that dew played a “massive role” across all three ODIs, heavily influencing the performances of both batters and bowlers.
“We know that during this time of the year, toss can play a massive role because when you’re bowling first or when you’re bowling second, there’s a lot of difference. Our bowlers felt that in the first two games.
“We saw what our batters did when we were batting second. So yes, there is no doubt that there is a lot of difference. But we still had to play good cricket today,” he said.
Looking ahead to the five-match T20I series, Gambhir downplayed concerns about dew being a decisive factor.
“Look, it probably won’t affect T20s much because both teams will get dew, as in one-day cricket, the team that bowls first doesn’t get dew at all. The team that bowls second gets a total of 50 overs of dew.
“But in T20, when the match starts at 7 o’clock, the dew is the same for the team. Maybe the team that bowls second will get a little more dew, but both teams will get it,” he added.
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