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"Creating Insecurity" - Zaheer Khan Not Convinced With Gautam Gambhir's Approach
Follow UsThe former India seamer feels frequent experimentation with batting positions could create insecurity among players
Former India seamer and 2011 World Cup-winner Zaheer Khan isn’t too pleased with current Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir and skipper Rohit Sharma making too many changes in the batting order. Zaheer feels frequent experimentation with batting positions could “create insecurity” among players.
In the ongoing ODI series against England, which India have already won, Rohit and Yashasvi Jaiswal walked out to open the innings in the first game in Nagpur. In Virat Kohli’s absence, Shubman Gill batted at No.3. The latter went back to opening the innings when Kohli made his return in the second ODI, with Jaiswal going out of the XI.
KL Rahul, who was India’s designated No.5 in the 2023 ODI World Cup and has also done well at that particular position, has batted at No.6 in both games against England. The wicketkeeper-batter has only managed 12 runs across two innings.
"You've said that you've got to have flexibility. Number one and two will be there, but the others are going to be flexible. Within that flexibility, some rules also apply,” Zaheer told Cricbuzz.
“There are certain protocols you have to follow. Certain communication needs to happen, which is gonna streamline things. Otherwise, you are creating insecurity, which, at some stage, will come back and hurt you. You don't want it to be the case. So you've got to be prepared to deal with that situation.”
For the “flexibility” to work, Zaheer feels there needs to be clear communication between the coach, captain, selectors and players. “That's why I said recency bias is something very strong right now. The situation has become dynamic if you compare Rahul Dravid's and Gautam Gambhir's approaches.
“You can say it's good, bad, or ugly, or you can say how do we adapt? Each individual is a part of this system, be it the senior management or the think tank, be it the players, be it the selectors. They will have to gauge it, and the entire system needs to be streamlined for the wheel to turn properly," he said.
India will play the third ODI against England on February 12 in Ahmedabad before travelling to Dubai for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy, starting on February 19.
