India head coach Gautam Gambhir has echoed Australian captain Pat Cummins’ thoughts by declaring the concept of batting order ‘overrated’ in T20 format.
Gambhir made it clear that this has been his ‘ideology from day one’ where averages and strike-rates take a back seat and the only thing that matters is the ‘impact’.
Recently, India clinched the five-match T20I series against Australia 2-1 after the final match in Brisbane was washed out. With this win, the Men in Blue maintained their unbeaten record in a bilateral T20I series under the regime of Gambhir and Suryakumar Yadav. The team also won the Asia Cup title in September this year.
“Look, that has been the ideology from day one when I took over as the head coach from Sri Lanka," Gambhir told BCCI in an interview.
“Till now, it hasn’t changed. I think batting orders are very overrated, except the openers. Obviously, the two openers are permanent, the rest I think everything shuffles because it’s not the amount of runs that matter in T20 cricket, it’s the impact that matters," he added.
Flexibility in the batting order has been a key aspect of his coaching tenure. Gambhir shifts the position as per the opposition’s tactics and left-right combinations.
“People sometimes miscalculate or do not differentiate between the batting order, the runs, and the impact. See, runs are different and impact is different. In T20 cricket, it’s all about the impact. It’s 120 balls. Every ball is an event. Every ball needs to have the maximum impact that we can have," Gambhir stated.
Data analysts of the sport always put an emphasis on having a flexible batting order, with a simple philosophy that if the pitches continue to be flat then T20 cricket should be about going after every ball.
“That’s the reason from day one it has been a very fluid batting order, and that is how we want to play this game as well," Gambhir said.
“We don’t want to play a game thinking about averages, strike rates, and all that stuff. We’re thinking about how much impact a person can create in what situation. That is going to be very important for this T20 side because with time, T20 cricket will evolve, and if we as coaches don’t evolve, obviously, we will be behind the 8-ball. We want to be ahead of T20 cricket, ahead of the times," he remarked.
