“I think in the one-day format, you should know the template you want to play with. I’ve always believed that in white-ball cricket, batting orders are very overrated, apart from the opening combination.”
When Indian coach Gautam Gambhir made this statement after the ODI series win against South Africa, there were many who disagreed with the assessment. As white-ball cricket has always been about player roles within the side, many felt that this was a statement that could disrupt the harmony in the Indian batting order.
In the T20Is, India seemed to have a solid order as Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma opened with Suryakumar Yadav at No.3 and the rest followed. But since then Shubman Gill is backwas installed at the top and Samson was sacrificed and brought into the middle order. Kerala goalkeeper since then has been out of the team for the last three T20Isand was replaced by Jitesh Sharma.
AB de Villiers weighed in on Gambhir’s remark on his YouTube channel. The former South Africa captain said he agreed with Gambhir to an extent, but said it was a fine line because you can’t do much about players’ roles.
“I agree with him to an extent. I’ve always enjoyed a floating batting line-up in ODIs. But it’s a fine line because you can’t really play with the players’ roles too much,” De Villiers said on his YouTube channel.
De Villiers said flexibility can be achieved through left-right combinations and at certain points in the game.
“It’s the top three, four to six and then your tailenders who can handle the bat. It’s almost like three segments and you can get really creative with it.”
“Play with right and left hand combinations and in certain situations of the game,” De Villiers said.
DE VILLIERS IN THE AWESOME OF INDIA
With the win against South Africa in Cuttack, India have now won 27 of their last 31 T20I matches. De Villiers finds the consistency from India incredible in cricket’s most volatile format and says it shows the team is heading in the right direction.
“It was unbelievable, especially for the 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 going in the right direction.
“I think it has to do with the depth of Indian cricket,” De Villiers said.
India and South Africa will face off in the second T20I at Mullanpur on Thursday, December 11.
– The end
Published on:
December 11, 2025
