Batting order is overrated in ODI: Gambhir hints at chop and change policy

Visakhapatnam: Gautam Gambhir’s penchant for shuffling cricketers has often come under sharp scrutiny, but the head coach insisted that “batting order is overrated” in white ball cricket, strongly hinting of him sticking to his trusted ways.

Forced by the combination, Ruturaj Gaikwad, a genuine opener, had to bat at No. 4 in the just-concluded ODI series, while all-rounder Washington Sundar has been a perennial floater in the line-up.

But Gambhir had his reasons.

“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,” said Gambhir in the post-match press conference here after India sealed a 2-1 ODI series win over the Proteas.

“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 further drive in his point, he gave the example of Washington who has been wearing different hats in each match.

“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 acknowledged that dew played a massive role in shaping the outcome of all three ODIs in this series, but he was hardly surprised.

“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, Gambhir felt that dew might not impact matches 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.