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The 2026 T20 World Cup is probably the biggest stage for India head coach Gautam Gambhir to silence all the haters who have been making noise on social media platforms for months. India, as one of the hosts of the 2026 T20 World Cup, will be one of the favorites to win the title again. Before the game, the team was in good shape in this special format.
Against New Zealand, they have shown pure dominance so far. But the real test will come at the T20 World Cup. For this game, the team management itself has made preparations, and the team has also made preparations.
Three points to explain why Gautam Gambhir can become a bigger threat for Team India:
1. Over-experimentation
Over the past few months, Gautam Gambhir and his support staff have experimented a lot in finding the right players to prepare a near-perfect starting XI. They tried to turn every possible stone.
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Harshit Rana is a perfect example of this experiment. The pacer is best known for his bowling but now, he is also capable of scoring a lot of runs. There is no doubt that Rana has strong support from the management.
Sanju Samson’s batting position is also another example of Gambhir’s experimentation. During the 2025 Asia Cup, the top-order batsman must bat from the middle position. Sometimes, these experiments prove to be inappropriate, mainly during Tests and ODIs where the team’s performance is not up to par. Will the management continue their experiment during the 2026 T20 World Cup? This will be very interesting.
2. Player characters are unstable
For experimental reasons, players also need to perform outside of their preferred positions, such as Sanju Samson. Arshdeep Singh is also one of the few players who has performed very well for the Men in Blue but has been inconsistent in the playing eleven. Sarfaraz Khan, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rinku Singh are among those cricketers who have no reason to be benched or dropped from the team.
For No. 3 alone, several batsmen were tested, including Shubman Gill, Sai Sudarsan, Karan Nair and Washington Sundar. The order in the middle was also shuffled.
Although in the past, the management claimed that they were exploring the strongest starting lineup through various shuffles and substitutions.
3. Over-reliance on batsmen
In the Gautam Gambhir era, even the bowlers had to improve their batting skills. We discussed Rana before. Kuldeep Yadav and Arshdeep Singh are the only few bowlers in the team who have joined as bowlers only. Jasprit Bumrah is not far off as he is a brilliant talent.
Many fans may think that T20 cricket is a batsman’s format. But T20 franchise leagues like SA20 and Big Bash League (BBL) have proven that even bowlers can make batsmen cry in this format. The addition of pace bowling all-rounders like Hardik Pandya and Harshit Rana will add batting depth by shortening the bowlers’ position.
If the batsmen fail to perform according to plan, then it is only the bowlers who come to save the day.
