Brian Lara, a former West Indian legend, has revealed Abhishek Sharma‘s intense desire to play Test cricket for India. Despite not having yet made his debut in ODIs or Tests, Abhishek has already played 24 Twenty20 Internationals and is now the top-ranked batter in the game’s shortest format, having already scored a few hundreds.
The ‘wonderful young player’ was how Lara described Abhishek Sharma.
He also explained how his guru, seasoned India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, shared many of his batting qualities. In addition to praising Abhishek’s skill, the renowned cricketer acknowledged that he had “grown very fond of him (Abhishek)” over the years. The former Caribbean cricket player praised the left-handed top-order batsman for his rapid improvement in batting over time.
“Abhishek Sharma and I were coworkers at SRH. I served as head coach in 2023 and as batting coach and strategic advisor in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic. I believe he is something very special, and he is a fantastic young player. He has been greatly influenced by Yuvraj Singh in terms of his bat speed, ball striking style, and line-playing technique. “He has the Yuvraj effect,” Lara said, as reported by India Today.
He occasionally calls me, and it’s really encouraging to see that he still wants to join the Test team despite his success in T20 cricket. It is really unique for someone like that to think so expansively. I’ve grown to really like him, but I don’t have a soft place in the traditional sense. It’s wonderful to observe his progress and improvement. He has elevated his performance to a new level,” he continued.
Abhishek has participated in 24 First-Class games and scored 1071 runs at a nearly 30-run average. He just finished India’s 2025 Asia Cup campaign with a victory. The Player of the Tournament award went to Abhishek, who scored 314 runs with a strike rate of 200 in seven games. The Amritsar native most recently played in a couple of India A matches against the visiting Australian team at home. His next international assignment is to play Australia in a white-ball series, for which he has been named in the T20I lineup.
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