Gautam Gambhir and the Indian management will have some tactical decisions to be made ahead of the clash against Zimbabwe in Chennai.
One black dot on a crystal clear white sheet of paper, and all the attention goes to that dot. India’s campaign in the T20 World Cup 2026 is nothing different to that sheet of paper currently. Head coach Gautam Gambhir will be forced to make some tactical changes to the side after the recent humbling against South Africa.
The Men in Blue started their campaign on a jittery note, but comfortably registered four victories in the group stage. However, their showdown against the Proteas in Ahmedabad had ‘tactical errors’ written all over it, as the Blues were taken down by a massive margin of 76 runs – which dented their net run-rate massively.
In the midst of all the chaos, former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has shared some advice for his former counterpart Gautam Gambhir. Ponting has warned Gambhir not to overcomplicate things ahead of their fixture against Zimbabwe. The Indians somehow paid too much attention to match-ups, deciding to go with Washington Sundar when they should have played Axar Patel.
Having said that, Ponting stated that the Indian side has too much of quality in their ranks to panic at this stage. The Australian skipper voiced that the team management should be focused on fielding the best possible XI as per the conditions, which should solve the problems for India.
“There’s enough class and quality in this Indian team that they don’t need to overthink every selection. One decision rarely wins you a game or a tournament. It’s very uncommon that you make one change and that player alone turns everything around,” said Ponting, advising Gautam Gambhir.
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One of the last things the Men in Blue can be doing at this stage is to panic. The world has seen what this Indian team can do, and they would be backing themselves to the hilt, in order to achieve two victories against the likes of Zimbabwe and the West Indies.
Gautam Gambhir played Washington Sundar in the first game of the Super 8s in order to attack the left-handed batters, who were dismissed early via some good bowling by the Indian pacers. Due to that, Suryakumar Yadav could not bring him back into the attack later with Dewald Brevis in the middle.
To add to that, the Indians sent Washington out at No.5 on aa wicket which had a lot in it for the bowlers. The Proteas executed their bowling plans to perfection, and did not let any of the Indian batters off the hook. Rinku Singh at No.5 would have made a lot of difference.
Moreover, the Indians have a bit of concern around the top order – with Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma not amongst the runs, there will be discussions about getting Sanju Samson back into the scheme of things However, what India will need to be careful of at this stage, is making too many changes to the XI at the last moment.
“I’d go back to basics. Look at the conditions in Chennai and ask: who are our best XI here? If that includes Axar Patel, great. With Kuldeep, it doesn’t matter whether the batters are left- or right-handed — he can bowl the wrong’un and spin it away from both. Yes, it may slightly weaken the batting, but if seven batters can’t get the job done in T20 cricket, it’s rare that an eighth will suddenly make the difference,” said Ponting.
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