New Delhi, Nov 10 (IANS) India head coach Gautam Gambhir said the team doesn’t approach a game thinking about averages and strike rates but instead focuses on the impact that a player can create in a given situation. His remarks came after India’s recent 2-1 T20I victory over Australia Down Under.

In a video interview shared by the BCCI on Monday, Gambhir spoke on Team India’s dynamic and flexible batting order in the T20Is and the bold approach adopted by the players.

“That has been the ideology from day one. When I took over as the head coach, from Sri Lanka till now, it hasn’t changed. Batting orders are very overrated, except the openers obviously, because they’re permanent. Everything shuffles because it’s not the amount of runs that matter in T20 cricket; it’s the impact that matters. People sometimes miscalculate or do not differentiate between the batting order, the runs, and the impact. Runs are different and impact is different in T20 cricket; it is all about the impact, it’s 120 balls, and every ball is an event.

“Everyone needs to have the maximum impact that we can have, and that’s the reason from day 1, has been a very fluid batting order, and that is how we want to play this game as well. 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. That is going to be very important for this T20 side because, with time, T20 cricket will evolve. We as coaches don’t evolve. We want to be ahead of T20 cricket, ahead of time. The most important thing is that these guys, the young boys, have adopted, and hopefully they continue adapting and evolving in future,” Gambhir told bcci.tv.

India played Australia in three ODIs and five T20Is Down Under, with the Men in Blue losing the 50-over series 2-1 and winning the 20-over series by the same margin. Giving his honest opinion on the team’s performances, Gambhir said that while individual performances can be appreciated and celebrated, they would never celebrate a series loss.

“I have always been a believer that it’s not about the individual performances. Yes, I can be very happy with individual performances, and I will always remain happy with individual performances, but ultimately, we lost the one-day series. That’s the bottom line. And I can never celebrate a series loss as a coach. As a player, I can appreciate individuals, but as a coach, it is my moral responsibility that we as the nation and we as individuals should never, never celebrate a series loss. Ultimately, we are representing the country. Yes,the T20 series was different, and we won the series. A lot of positive, but a lot of learning as well. We are 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. We are in that space where we want to be before the World Cup,” he added.

–IANS

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