Former South Africa captain AB de Villiers emphasized the necessity for teams to strike a balance between flexibility and clearly defined duties, saying he agrees “to a certain extent” with India head coach Gautam Gambhir’s opinion that ODI batting orders are “overrated.”
Gambhir had stated that he believed batting orders were overrated in the ODI format after India’s 2-1 victory over South Africa.
“I do agree with him to a certain extent. I’ve always enjoyed a floating batting lineup in ODIs. But it’s a fine line because you can’t really play around too much with the players’ roles,” De Villiers said on his YouTube channel.
“It’s the top three, four to six, and then your tailenders who can hold the bat. It’s almost like three segments, and you can really be creative with that. Play with right and left-hand combinations and certain situations of the game.”
India extended their winning streak to 27 out of 31 games by defeating South Africa in the first Twenty20 International in Cuttack.
However, the sequence broke when India crashed to a 51-run defeat in the second T20I at Mullanpur on Thursday.
Chasing a 214-run target, left-handed Axar Patel was sent at No. 3 after the first ball duck dismissal of vice-captain Shubman Gill even though left-handed Abhishek Sharma was at the crease.
