Gautam Gambhir, the head coach of India, spoke to the official Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) website about the progress of his side after their 2-1 win in the five-match T20I series against
Australia down under last week. The 44-year-old was honest in his assessment of the Men in Blue, captained by talisman Suryakumar Yadav, stating that they are still not where they want to be with the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 just around three months away.
While the date of the premier T20I tournament in the world isn’t confirmed yet by the International Cricket Council (ICC), the defending champions India will be hosting it alongside Sri Lanka, tentatively slated to happen during February-March of 2026. The Indian cricket team will be playing 10 T20I matches ahead of the home World Cup with five each against South Africa and New Zealand in their own conditions, to prepare for the tournament.
While speaking exclusively to BCCI.tv, Gautam Gambhir said, “We're still not where we want to be in three months down the line. Because the bigger picture is not the series, but the World Cup as well. So hopefully, by the time the World Cup comes, I think we are in that space where we want to be before the World Cup.” It is important to note that Hardik Pandya, who was a key part of India’s world title victory last year, didn’t play in the T20I series versus Australia due to fitness issues, which is why the team management tried multiple options to match his all-round ability.
Obviously, two openers are permanent. Rest, I think everything shuffles: Gautam Gambhir on India's batting order
After stressing on the importance of fitness for the Men in Blue, Gautam Gambhir shared his philosophy of favouring the shuffle in the batting order except for openers Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill. He remarked, “Obviously, two openers are permanent. Rest, I think everything shuffles because it's not the amount of runs that matter in T20 cricket. It's the impact that matters. And people sometimes miscalculate or do not differentiate between the batting order, the runs and the impact.”
“See, runs are different and impact is different. In T20 cricket, it's all about the impact. It's 120 balls. Every ball is an event. Every ball needs to have the maximum impact that we can have. And that's the reason from day one, I think it has been a very fluid batting order. And that is how we want to play this game. We don't want to play a game thinking about averages, strike rates and all that stuff. We are thinking about how much impact a person can create in what situation. I think that is going to be very important for this T20 side,” the head coach of India further remarked, hinting at more changes in batting order leading up to the T20 World Cup 2026.
