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Left-right, left-right: India’s march to success
India's T20 batting strategy has evolved with a focus on left-right combinations, boosting strike rates significantly and embracing flexibility among players.
Kolkata: In the 2016 T20 World Cup semi-final against West Indies, four Indians batted, none of them left-handed. In the 2022 semi-final, there was only one—Rishabh Pant—among seven. In the 2024 final, that number had risen to a significant four out of eight, but only in tandem from No. 3 because openers Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were right-handers. Now we have left-right batters in tandem from the top to No. 8 with the brief to not hold back.
The results have been staggering but most definitive is how India’s strike rate for the top seven has climbed over the years. It was 140.01 between the 2016 and 2022 T20 World Cups, 144.55 till the 2024 edition and 157.97 since then. The foremost reason behind this uptick is the level of T20 specialisation the current setup has. Not just Abhishek Sharma up front but also Tilak Varma and Shivam Dube, all of them made into finished products by IPL where they have pulled off specific jobs on a regular basis without having to worry about any other format.
This is a recent change India have embraced. All format players were the way to go for a long time, based on the assumption they would comfortably switch into T20 mode. And when that didn’t happen on occasions, India tried to adapt to batting around an anchor. Kohli was supposed to be that man but somehow by extension, Rohit and KL Rahul too were exempt from trying to play more aggressively. As a result, India had a very conservative top-order throughout the 2022 T20 World Cup. A 10-wicket thumping at the hands of England in the semi-final finally prompted India to read the riot act, with Rohit taking the initiative to break the shackles.
So effective was that approach in the 2023 ODI World Cup, that India started preparing for the 2024 T20 World Cup with Kohli opening with Rohit. But this was a different format, and the plan was still very top-order centric and very reliant on either Kohli or Rohit going all the way. And while it did pay off in the match that mattered (Kohli top-scored with 76 in the final), India’s batting still looked shackled. That went away once Kohli and Rohit retired and Pant was finally overlooked after a string of uninspiring scores at No 3. In came Abhishek and Sanju Samson as openers, followed by Varma or new captain Suryakumar Yadav, depending on who got dismissed. Left-right all the way.
Mind you, this wasn’t a decision taken recently. “We spoke in 2023-24 itself that the openers are fixed, but everyone from Nos. 3 to 7 have been told that they can come into bat anytime, in any situation. It is not just that one batter will bat at a particular position,” Axar Patel had told reporters in Kolkata during the T20I series against England. Left-handed replaces left-handed, same goes with the right-handed batters. Patel can bat ahead of Dube or Hardik Pandya before Yadav. It’s the way India roll right now.
What really gave wings to this approach was the selection of batters who would go after the bowling without waiting. At its behest was Gambhir, who has a documented love for left-right batting strategy. When he came back to Kolkata Knight Riders as mentor, their right-left partnerships went up from 58% in 2022 and 2023 to 74% in 2024.
He injected the same pattern in the India team selection, picking batters with high strike rates and the ability to target obscure corners of the field. For some time, Pandya was the failsafe option in this entire scheme. But that there has been a rethink is evident in how India picked Shubman Gill as Abhishek’s partner, underscoring the strategy of maybe anchoring the line-up with at least two batters capable of salvaging the innings. Gill’s strike rate of 155.88 in the 2025 IPL helped his case, and he also had to be right-handed since Abhishek bats left-handed.
Because Gambhir knows no other way. “Why would you want to have top five as right-handers? We don’t look at averages and stats and all that stuff. We look at who can deliver more at that number,” he said during the England series.
“Apart from openers, all other batters will be flexible. You have got to prepare in such a way where you can bat anywhere,” said Yadav after India beat Pakistan in the Asia Cup. “If you play seven batters, it’s important for everyone to make a small impact. Everyone has accepted it. Everyone is flexible. If you are flexible to bat anywhere, the team becomes even more dangerous.” And based on current performance, you can’t help but feel India know what they are doing.
