T20 World Cup 2026 could be the biggest platform for Team India coach Gautam Gambhir to silence all his haters who have been making noise on social media platforms for months. India, one of the hosts of the T20 World Cup 2026, will be one of the favorites to win the title again. Ahead of the tournament, the team has been in great form in this particular format.
Against New Zealand he has given a performance of pure dominance so far. But the real test will be in the T20 World Cup. The team management prepared itself for this tournament and also prepared the team.
3 points explain why Gautam Gambhir can be a big threat to Team India:
1. Overuse
Over the past few months, Gautam Gambhir and his support staff have been conducting several experiments to find the right set of players to create an almost perfect playing XI. He tried to turn every possible stone.
Harshit Rana is a perfect example of experimentation. This fast bowler was mostly known for his bowling, but now, he is also capable of scoring a remarkable amount of runs. There is no doubt that Rana got a lot of support from the management.
Sanju Samson’s batting position is also another example of Gambhir’s experimentation. The top-order batsman had to perform from the middle order during the Asia Cup 2025. Sometimes, these experiments did not prove appropriate, mostly during Tests and ODIs, where the team’s performance was not good. Will the management continue its experiments even during the T20 World Cup 2026? This will be very interesting to see.
2. Unstable roles for players
Due to experiments, players also had to perform outside their preferred positions like Sanju Samson. Arshdeep Singh is also one of those few players who has performed extremely well for the Men in Blue but is often irregular in the playing eleven. Sarfaraz Khan, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rinku Singh were among the cricketers who had little reason to miss out or be left out of the team.
Only for the No. 3 spot, several batsmen were tested, including Shubman Gill, Sai Sudarshan, Karun Nair and Washington Sundar. There has also been a reshuffle in the middle order.
Although in the past, management had claimed that they were doing all the shuffling and replacement to find the strongest starting lineup.
3. Overdependence on batsmen
In the era of Gautam Gambhir, bowlers will also have to improve their batting skills. We had talked about Rana earlier. Kuldeep Yadav and Arshdeep Singh are the only bowlers who are in the team only as bowlers. Jasprit Bumrah is not far away, as he is an extraordinary talent.
Many fans would believe that T20 cricket is a batsmen’s format. But T20 franchise leagues like SA20 and Big Bash League (BBL) have proved that bowlers can also make the batsmen cry in this format. The inclusion of fast bowling all-rounders like Hardik Pandya and Harshit Rana will increase the batting depth due to less space for bowlers.
If the batsmen fail to perform as per plans, it will be only the bowlers to save the day.
Read more: India U19 vs Pakistan U19 Preview: Free Live Streaming, Match Prediction, Pitch & Weather Report, Head-to-Head, Playing XI | ICC Under 19 World Cup 2026
