Yuvraj Singh mighty impressed after ‘sir’ Abhishek Sharma finds form in T20 World Cup: ‘Let the bat do all the talking’
After two weeks of toiling hard in the middle, Abhishek Sharma finally found his mojo in the T20 World Cup 2026, registering his first fifty in the tournament on Thursday. The left-handed batter from Punjab scored 55 runs in 30 balls against Zimbabwe with the help of four sixes and as many boundaries to set up the base for the defending champions to post more than 250 runs on the board. Before the must-win contest at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Abhishek had just managed 15 runs, including three ducks.
However, Zimbabwe erred big time with their tactics, deciding not to introduce a spinner in the powerplay, which let Abhishek get his eye in and tee off almost immediately. Abhishek mixed caution with aggression, and even showed the stomach to rotate the strike rather than go big on every ball.
Tinotenda Maposa eventually sent Abhishek back to the pavilion, but by then the batter had already done his job of keeping India in front of the game. The latest knock by the No.1 T20I batter in the world also impressed his mentor, Yuvraj Singh.
The 2007 T20 World Cup-winning all-rounder congratulated Abhishek on a good innings and asked him to “keep pushing.”
“The best chatter is when you let the bat do all the talking. Good innings, sir Abhishek, keep pushing,” Yuvraj wrote on Instagram Stories.
Change of partners
For the match against Zimbabwe, India made two changes to its playing XI, bringing in Sanju Samson and Axar Patel for Rinku Singh and Washington Sundar. Samson came out to open alongside Abhishek, and the left-right combination forced Zimbabwe not to bowl an off-spinner inside the powerplay.
With pacers bowling with the field restrictions, Abhishek and Sanju went after the attack right from the very start, putting on a stand of 48 runs. Sanju scored 24 runs before walking back to the dressing room in the fourth over.
Hardik Pandya also scored a half-century as India posted 256/4 in the allotted twenty overs. Arshdeep Singh then returned with three wickets as Zimbabwe were restricted to 184, helping India win by 72 runs.
India will now take on the West Indies at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on March 1, and the winner will qualify for the semi-finals.
Mohammad Amir’s comment about Abhishek
Earlier, former Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir sparked a controversy after he labelled Abhishek as just a “slogger”, who doesn’t have any defensive gear in his batting. This comment led to several Indian fans trolling him on social media as well.
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