Former India captain and coach Anil Kumble has said Abhishek Sharma needs to find a balance between attacking play and spending more time at the crease, drawing a comparison with Virender Sehwag ahead of the IPL season starting March 28.
The 25-year-old Abhishek has built a reputation for fast starts at the top of the order with his high-risk approach. However, his starts have not always turned into big scores.
“I would relate him to someone like Virender Sehwag, because he would look to smash every ball. When he moved from Test cricket to one-day cricket and then to T20 cricket, he realised that he had to pace his innings slightly differently,” the former India coach said.
“But Sehwag would still go at a 140–150 strike-rate. So, that’s something Abhishek Sharma needs to start thinking about, saying, ‘I’ve been scoring at 200 strike-rate, expectations are on me, should I now go at a strike rate of 300?’ No, you just have to be normal. You have to play a number of balls,” Kumble said on JioStar, as cited by news agency PTI.
Kumble pointed out that Abhishek has the ability to score quickly but needs to stay longer at the crease to make a bigger impact.
“If Abhishek Sharma bats 20 balls in an innings, we know he will be close to that 50 mark. We saw that with Sanju Samson, not getting out in the 40s or 50s, but making it count by going deeper, getting to that 85-90 mark.
“That’s what you need in the T20 format. Maybe that’s the kind of maturity you will see in Abhishek this season, which SRH will be hoping for,” he added.
Abhishek, who had a quiet T20 World Cup campaign, will next play for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the upcoming IPL.
Former South Africa captain AB de Villiers also spoke about the need for consistency from the left-hander, especially with rising expectations.
“He’s 25, not 20 anymore. So, this is definitely the phase where he has to start taking more responsibility. There will be media pressure and people asking him to become more consistent.
“We know he was a little inconsistent during the T20 World Cup, which was disappointing. He had a good finish in the final, but otherwise, it was a quiet tournament for him. He was erratic at times. He had an unbelievable IPL 2025, scoring close to a 200 strike-rate and averaging in the 30s, which is good for an opening batter scoring over 400 runs in the tournament, but it could have been better.
“Once again, that word consistency comes to mind. It’s a personal challenge he will have to overcome mentally.”
De Villiers added that dealing with expectations will be key for Abhishek going forward.
“Being the number one international T20I batter in the world comes with expectation, and that is the most dangerous word in cricket, when you feel like the whole world is closing in on you, and it’s up to him to fight those mental battles throughout this coming season.”
