The new sensational and dynamic opening batter of the young India side to tour Zimbabwe for the five-match T20I series, Abhishek Sharma, given how the senior members of the team have been rested after a long T20 World Cup 2024, has shown his aggression during the second game of the series at the Harare Sports Club.
India came into the series on the back of their 13-run defeat during the first game at the same ground, 24 hours ago, when they failed to chase 116 on a surface that was dry and low to make the ball hold off the surface.
India did a great job with the ball in that game, but they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals throughout the chase and ended up falling short of the goal, as the pressure was mounting on the young Indian batters. The left-hander opener Abhishek Sharma was dismissed on a three-ball duck to start his international career in a bad way.
Abhishek Sharma slams maiden century to open India’s account
Winning the toss during the second game on the same strip, India captain Shubman Gill decided to bat first expecting the tired track to get more slow to make batting tough in the second innings. However, the opponent captain Sikandar Raza was quite happy with the decision.
The spin all-rounder addressed the track as a perfect summer, as he expected the ball to come nicely onto the bat during their chase. The blue brigade didn’t make a great start losing Gill early in the innings, while run scoring was getting quite tough for both Abhishek Sharma and the new batter Ruturaj Gaikwad.
The pacers of the Zimbabwe side were getting pace and speed, while the batters were not able to get the full flow of the bat. There was a moment when the Punjab batter looked to nail the ball out of the park, but the ball went high in the air, as the fielders gathered together, but failed to hold onto it.
Later, he blasted away the big shots and reached his fifty. It wasn’t the end, he kept on hammering the big shots around the ground, to make the Zimbabwe bowling quite poor. He finally celebrated his 100 in 47 balls with the help of eight over boundaries and seven fours, at a strike rate of 212.77.
Abhishek Sharma left the field with a huge round of applause while Gaikwad from the other end remained unbeaten on 77 balls in 47 balls, with the help of 11 boundaries and a single six, as the Indian team reached 234/2 in their allotted 20-overs.
The left-handed opening batter smacked his 47th six of the season, as Abhishek Sharma went past Rohit Sharma with the most sixes in 2024. It’s the third-fastest century for India in T20Is in 46 balls, as he notched up his century in the second innings of his career.
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Rohit still holds the record for the fastest T20I century for India in 35 balls, as he celebrated the landmark against Sri Lanka in 2017, while KL Rahul too reached the milestone in 46 balls. Suryakumar Yadav also registered his century in 45 balls against Sri Lanka last year at Rajkot. It will be interesting to see if India keeps on going with Abhishek Sharma as an opener in T20Is when the seniors return to the side during the white-ball series in Sri Lanka.
India went on to win the second T20I game of the series by 100 runs and level the series by 1-1, going into the third of the five-match series at the Harare Sports Club, in Harare on July 10.