NEW DELHI: Former India pacer Zaheer Khan has expressed concerns over head coach Gautam Gambhir‘s flexible approach in white-ball cricket, cautioning that it could lead to uncertainty among players. Zaheer’s remarks come amid India’s frequent experimentation with batting positions in the ongoing limited-overs series against England.
India have shuffled their opening combinations and No. 3 batter in almost every match. While the T20I opening duo of Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma remained constant, the ODI setup has seen frequent changes. In the first ODI, Yashasvi Jaiswal partnered Rohit Sharma at the top, a move later clarified by Shreyas Iyer as a pre-planned strategy rather than a necessity due to Virat Kohli‘s unavailability. However, with Kohli’s return for the second ODI, Jaiswal was dropped, and Shubman Gill was promoted to open alongside Rohit.
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Speaking on Cricbuzz, Zaheer emphasised that while flexibility is important, it must come with clear guidelines to ensure stability within the squad.
“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. 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,” Zaheer said.

The former left-arm pacer stressed that for Gambhir’s strategy to work, there must be absolute clarity 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 have to compare Rahul Dravid’s approach and Gautam Gambhir’s approach. 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,” Zaheer added.
As Team India continues to fine-tune its squad ahead of the Champions Trophy, the balance between experimentation and stability will be crucial in determining the team’s success.