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Gautam Gambhir says batting orders are ‘overrated’ in T20s. For him, it’s not about averages or strike rates, but who creates the largest impact when it matters.
Coach Gautam Gambhir (L) with Suryakumar Yadav (R)
Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir has joined Australia’s Pat Cummins in declaring the concept of batting order ‘overrated’ for T20 cricket. He said this has been his ‘ideology from day one’ where averages and strike-rates don’t matter since it’s all about when a batter can have the largest ‘impact’.
Since he took over as an all-format coach in 2023, T20 has been Gambhir’s best format. He oversaw two big Test series losses early on to Latest Zealand and Australia and recently tasted defeat in a three-ODI rubber down under. But in T20s, India have yet to lose a series under him.
“Look, that has been the ideology from day one after I took over as the top coach from Sri Lanka,” he told BCCI in an interview. “Till now, it hasn’t modified. I feel batting orders are very overrated, except the openers. Obviously, the 2 openers are everlasting, the remaining I feel the whole lot shuffles since it’s not the quantity of runs that matter in T20 cricket, it’s the impact that matters,” he added.
Flexibility within the batting order has been a key aspect of his coaching. Unlike some teams, which like the identical batters to bat ready with specific ‘roles’ for every, Gambhir shifts the team in response to the opposition’s tactics and left-right combos. Sometimes it really works wonders, but in other cases, like Sanju Samson’s, it finally ends up hurting the possibilities of the players.
“People sometimes miscalculate or don’t differentiate between the batting order, the runs, and the impact. See, runs are different and impact is different. In T20 cricket, it’s all in regards to the impact. It’s 120 balls. Every ball is an event. Every ball must have the utmost impact that we are able to have,” Gambhir said.
That is the vision shared by several data analysts of the game. They imagine that if pitches proceed to be as flat as they’re, T20 cricket can be simply, single-minded hitting and going after every ball.
“That’s the explanation from day one it has been a really fluid batting order, and that’s how we would like to play this game as well,” Gambhir said. “We don’t need to play a game fascinated by averages, strike rates, and all that stuff. We’re fascinated by how much impact an individual can create in what situation. That’s going to be very necessary for this T20 side because with time, T20 cricket will evolve, and if we as coaches don’t evolve, obviously, we will probably be behind the 8-ball. We would like to be ahead of T20 cricket, ahead of the times,” he added.
November 10, 2025, 16:31 IST
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