'Batting orders are very overrated...': Gautam Gambhir’s strong message to critics questioning India’s batting line-up team's 2-1 series win vs Australia

India head coach Gautam Gambhir recently faced a lot of criticism after he shuffled the batting order in the T20I series against Australia. The Suryakumar Yadav-led side, who registered a dominating 2-1 series win against Australia after the fifth clash in Brisbane ended without result due to rain, featured numerous batting shuffles in all games except the openers.

Gautam Gambhir on batting positions

During the T20I series between India and Australia, players came to bat according to their strengths to deal with the situation rather than a fixed position. Days after India's win, head coach Gautam Gambhir said that barring openers, the entire batting unit is fluid as any player is capable of featuring at any position.

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"That has been the ideology from day one when I took over as the head coach, from Sri Lanka till now. It has not 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 is not the amount of runs that matter in T20 cricket, it's the impact that matters. People sometimes miscalculate or do not differentiate between the batting order, the runs, and the impact," Gambhir told BCCI in an interview after the Australia tour.

India's new way of batting

Gambhir further stated that it's the way Team India wants to play the game without thinking about the averages, strike rates, and all that stuff.

"That's the reason from day one, I think it has been a fluid batting order, and that is how we want to play the game. We don't want to play a game thinking about averages, strike rates, and all that stuff," Gambhir added.

Notably, Team India have not lost a T20I series since Gambhir took over as head coach from Rahul Dravid after the T20 World Cup 2024. After the T20I series, India's next T20I assignment will be against South Africa, which will start from December 9 after the Test and ODI series.