By Karan Agrawal 
Former Indian left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan has raised concerns over India’s unsettled batting order leading into the Champions Trophy to be played in Pakistan and Dubai from February 19. India have used different combinations at the top of the order in the first two ODIs against England with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma opening the innings in the first match and Shubman Gill batting at number three. The Rohit Sharma-led side went with the conventional batting order of Shubman and Rohit opening the innings and Virat Kohli batting at number three. The constant change of the batting order has prompted experts to question the team management’s mindset before the Champions Trophy.
Expert’s Corner
Amidst the growing concerns about uncertainty over batting position India’s former left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan has expressed his opinion on the highly debated topic. When asked about the repercussions that the constant shuffling of batter order might have on the mindset of the players Zaheer said “You’ve said that you’ve got to have the flexibility. Numbers 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,” he told Cricbuzz.
The Approach
Zaheer also eluded to the fact that the difference in Gambhir’s approach as compared to that of Rahul Dravid has made the situation more dynamic with recency bias coming into play. “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,” he added.
The Change
If we talk about an example where the shuffling of the batting order has been quite evident is when the team management decided to send Axar Patel at number five ahead of KL Rahul who has done well at that particular position only to maintain the left-right combination in the middle a move which has received heavy criticism from every corner with people sympathizing with KL Rahul despite a no show with the bat as the right-hander hasn’t been given consistent run at a particular number.