At Kolkata’s famous Eden Gardens, India’s youthful opener Abhishek Sharma stole the show in the opening Twenty20 International match against England by hitting a game-winning 79 off just 34 balls. In addition to helping the Men in Blue win by seven wickets with an innings that featured eight sixes and five boundaries, Yuvraj Singh, his guru and one of India’s top all-rounders, praised him for his performance.
Following the dismissals of captain Suryakumar Yadav (0) and Sanju Samson (26) India faltered in their chase for 133. By hitting the second-fastest fifty by an Indian against England in just 20 balls, Abhishek calmed the swaying vessel. With 84 runs off of just 42 balls, he and Tilak Varma’s partnership made sure India won easily in just 12.5 overs. The southpaw’s performance was praised by Yuvraj, who has been working with him since he was a small boy, on social media.
“The boys, good start to the series! 🇮🇳 The tone established by our bowlers was excellent, and Abhishek Sharma, sir, did a fantastic job! “You hit two boundaries down the ground as well, which is impressive,” he remarked on X.
Good start to the series boys ! 🇮🇳 great tone set by our bowlers and well played sir !@IamAbhiSharma4 top knock ‘!! I’m impressed you hit 2 boundaries down the ground aswell 🤪! #indiavsengland
— Yuvraj Singh (@YUVSTRONG12) January 22, 2025
Working alongside Yuvi Paaji: Abhishek Sharma
Due to his patchy performances, Abhishek’s spot in the Indian T20I lineup had been questioned. He had struggled to keep up his form, scoring just 256 runs in 13 T20Is before to this encounter, despite scoring a century against Zimbabwe. Critics, however, can now rest easy after his performance against England. Even Abhishek acknowledged the influence of mentors such as Gautam Gambhir, Brian Lara, and Yuvraj, attributing his improvement as a cricket player to their advice.
“I think I’m quite fortunate in this. At first, I worked with Yuvi Paaji. In the future, Brian Lara was a huge assistance to me at SRH. Dan Vettori’s philosophy going forward was rather straightforward: he only wanted people to express themselves, which I believe allowed me to play my shots. Therefore, it’s clear that Yuvraj Singh, Brian Lara, and even Gauti bhai at the moment only want me to support myself and show off my skills,” Abhishek remarked afterwards.
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