Former Indian captain and coach Anil Kumble. has said Abhishek Sharma A balance needs to be found between attacking play and spending more time at the crease, to compare with Virender Sehwag Ahead of the IPL season starting on March 28.The 25-year-old Abhishek has built a reputation for quick starts at the top of the order with his high-risk approach. However, his debut didn’t always translate into big scores.
The former India coach said, “I would pair him with someone like Virender Sehwag, because he tries to break every ball. When he moved from Test cricket to ODI cricket and then T20 cricket, he realized that he had to approach his innings a little differently.”“But Sehwag will still go for a strike rate of 140-150. So, Abhishek Sharma needs to start thinking, ‘I am scoring at a strike rate of 200, there are expectations from me, should I now go for a strike rate of 300?’ No, you just have to be normal. You have to play several balls,” Kumble said on JioStar, as quoted by news agency PTI.Kumble pointed out that Abhishek has the ability to score quickly but needs to stay at the crease longer to make more of an impact.“If Abhishek Sharma bats 20 balls in an innings, we know he will get close to that 50. We saw that with Sanju Samson, not getting out in the 40s or 50s, but going deep and making it count, and getting to that 85-90 mark.“That’s what you need in the T20 format. Maybe you’ll see a similar maturity in Abhishek this season, which SRH will be hoping for,” he added.Abhishek, who had a quiet T20 World Cup campaign, will play for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the upcoming IPL.Former South African captain AB de Villiers also spoke about the need for consistency from the left-hander, especially with the increased expectations.“He’s 25 now, not 20, so, this is definitely the stage where he has to start taking on more responsibilities. There will be media pressure and people asking him to be more consistent.“We know he was a bit inconsistent during the T20 World Cup, which was disappointing. He did well in the final, but otherwise, it was a quiet tournament for him. He was sometimes erratic. He had an incredible IPL 2025, scoring close to 200 at a strike rate and averaging in the 30s, which is good for an opening batsman with over 400 runs in the tournament, but it could have been better.“Again, the word consistency comes to mind. It’s a personal challenge that he will have to overcome mentally.”Dealing with expectations will be key for Abhishek going forward, added de Villiers.“Being the world number one international T20I batsman comes with hope, and that’s 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 this coming season.”
