Despite celebrating a century early in his T20I career, the left-handed opening batter for India, Abhishek Sharma, hasn’t looked in a fluent touch for the national side. He is struggling to find the right consistency with the bat, as he has collected 166 runs in eight innings at an average of 20.75 and a strike rate of over 164.35.
Abhishek Sharma has recently been retained by his Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise for the 2025 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The national selectors included him in the squad on the back of a marvelous season of the 20-over event where he bagged 484 runs in 16 innings at an average of 32.26 and a strike rate of over 200 with the help of three half-centuries.
However, the few months for India haven’t been healthy for the opening batter, who, during the opening T20I game against South Africa in Durban, could make only seven runs in eight deliveries with one boundary. In the same clash, his opening partner, Sanju Samson, taking lessons from his past mistakes, celebrated his successive T20I century.
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The former Indian opener, Aakash Chopra, felt that the ultra-aggressive batting could potentially be the cause of the downfall of Abhishek Sharma, who perhaps is aiming to nail the boundary on every delivery of the encounters.
Aakash Chopra predicts the potential drop of Abhishek Sharma from India’s T20I team
In his recent video, the former Delhi batter praised the contribution of Samson, who smashed 107 runs in just 50 deliveries with a strike rate of 214, shouldering on the seven boundaries and ten sixes in the game. The Punjab-born, on the other hand, perished on the first ball of the fourth over.
“It’s a tale of two openers. There is Sanju (Samson), whose stars are shining bright, on one side. On the other side is Abhishek Sharma, whose stars have fallen. When he had struck a century against Zimbabwe, he was that shining new bright star.” The former opener of India expressed this in a video shared on his YouTube channel.
The veteran also questioned the shot the left-handed opening batter played against Gerald Coetzee, the pacer of South Africa.
“However, after that, he has fallen drastically. The shot he played in this match, as well against Gerald Coetzee, it seems like he is a prisoner of his reputation, that he would play like this only and is not going to wait.” The renowned commentator added.
The T20I side for the South Africa series has been designed with not many top-class 20-over players being available due to the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25. Both Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal have done well in the shortest format and could replace Abhishek Sharma on their return if the latter doesn’t make a solid comeback.
Jaiswal, the left-handed opening batter for the Blue Brigade, has smacked 723 T20I runs in 22 innings at an average of 36.15 and a strike rate of over 160 with the help of five half-centuries and one century.
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Chopra addressed that Abhishek is likely to open the batting for the remaining three games of the series, but his position will be under the microscope if he fails to fire soon.
“It’s been one more failure. A time will come when it will be a problem. Questions will be asked about how long will you stick with him. Again, he will get three more games, but one by one, the sand is being seen slipping from his hand.” The veteran concluded.
The second game of the series will begin on November 10 at St. George’s Park.