Sipu Jha
NEW DELHI: Gautam Gambhir’s constant experimentation with the batting lineup has often been questioned, but the Indian head coach reiterated that “batting order is overrated” in white-ball cricket, hinting he will continue following his approach. In the recently concluded ODI series, Ruturaj Gaikwad — a natural opener — was pushed down to No. 4, while all-rounder Washington Sundar continued to float in multiple positions.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Gambhir justified the decisions.
“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 at the post-match press conference after India sealed a 2-1 win over South Africa.“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.To support his stance, Gambhir pointed to Washington Sundar’s flexibility and impact despite constant changes.“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,” said Gambhir.“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 admitted that dew significantly influenced results across all three ODIs — something he expected.“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.However, he believes dew will have less impact during the upcoming five-match T20I series.“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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