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The Indian side has been quite flexible with their batting order in the white-ball format. Head Coach Gautam Gambhir would even go on to say that batting orders in the white-ball format are overrated. However, former Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa warned both the coach and skipper Suryakumar Yadav and said that if things were to go wrong, it would backfire on them.
“If this goes south, it’ll backfire on both Surya and Gautam Gambhir. And people are anyway gunning for his (Gambhir )head. You can’t go into a World Cup as the defending champions with your main batters not in good form. In the first T20I, Hardik saved the skins out of India’s innings. If it wasn’t for him, we would have been 30-40 runs off that total and that’s a 130. Those things concern me,” Uthappa said on his YouTube channel.
“Today it’s not affecting him because India is winning matches. He’s one of the most successful Indian captain right now with an 85 win percentage. But if that drops over the next nine games, then it starts impacting his batting and it starts impacting how he leads on the field as well. India is leading into a World Cup at home where you want to have your main batters in really good form, especially when you are defending champions,” he said.
Ab de Villiers too reacted to Gambhir’s batting orders being overrated and the constant shuffling of players’ positions. Former South African his YouTube channel said: “I do agree with him to a certain extent. I’ve always enjoyed a floating batting lineup in ODIs. But it’s a fine line because you can’t really play around too much with the players’ roles. It’s the top three, four to six, and then your tailenders who can hold the bat. It’s almost like three segments, and you can really be creative with that. Play with right and left-hand combinations and certain situations of the game.”
De Villiers also lauded the depth of the Indian side, as they have won 27 out of their last 31 games. “It has been incredible, especially for a T20 format. It’s the most volatile format of the three, and to have that kind of consistency tells you there must be something going on that’s heading in the right direction. I think it’s got to do with the depth of Indian cricket,” said De Villiers
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