India head coach Gautam Gambhir has come under scrutiny and criticism for shuffling India’s batting order in the tied first ODI and the lost second ODI against Sri Lanka in the ongoing three-match ODI series.
As a result of these outcomes, India now are in danger of losing their first bilateral ODI series against Sri Lanka in 27 years; the last time Sri Lanka defeated India in an ODI series was in December 1997.
The Charith Asalanka-led side will take the field on August 7 at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo with the aim of ending this 27-year wait, while Team India will look to bounce back and end the series on a high.
In the first two ODIs, where India failed to chase down targets of 231 and 241, head coach Gautam Gambhir made some questionable calls by changing the batting positions of Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul.
Both the middle-order batters who had cemented their number 4 and 5 positions during last year’s World Cup with brilliant performances have been pushed lower in the order. Gambhir has promoted the likes of Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, and Shivam Dube in the batting order.
The failure to win a single game out of the two ODIs has led to questions about this tactic of the new head coach.
It Was More About Keeping a Left-and-Right Combination: Abhishek Nayar
Assistant coach Abhishek Nayar explained that since Sri Lanka have spinners of multiple varieties—leg-spinner, left-arm spinner, and off-spinner—Gambhir promoted the left-handers to keep the left-right combination.
Nayar pointed out that the middle-order batters still batted in the middle-overs, so the rejigging of the batting order, according to him, wasn’t the reason for the loss.
“My belief is that in any sport, position only matters if you’re playing in different areas of a game. We lost wickets in the middle phase, and that’s where the middle-order batters batted. It’s not as if middle-order batters batted towards the end.”
“If you look at numbers like four, five, or six, maybe sometimes it can play games in your head. It was more about keeping a left-and-right combination, keeping in mind that there were offspinners and a legspinner in the Sri Lanka team.
“The thought process was right. When it doesn’t work out, these questions are asked often. But I’ve always believed that if a middle-order batter bats as a middle-order batter, it is the right decision.”
Get the latest India vs Sri Lanka updates at IceCric.News. Also, Follow Our Social Media for Live Updates – Facebook & Instagram.
