Indian opener Abhishek Sharma stated that he merely backs his shots because he does not have a diverse range of strokes in his arsenal. The left-hander reached his half-century in just 22 balls, finishing with a strike rate of 240 after hammering eight sixes in a blistering performance during the opening T20I against New Zealand, helping the Men in Blue to a 48-run win.
Abhishek hit four sixes before scoring his first boundary following the powerplay. Because openers have little time to assess conditions before attacking, the teenager admits that doing his preparation before a match helps him get in the correct mindset from the start.
“If you watch videos [of bowlers] or if you watch your batting videos as well, you get an idea that where the bowler is planning to bowl to you or maybe where I’m going to play my shots. But it’s always about me backing my shots because I don’t have a lot of shots. It’s just a few shots. I’m going to practice a lot and just execute it,” said Abhishek in the presentation.
Abhishek hit some massive sixes but he felt his game is more than power hitting. Since the 2024 T20 World Cup, he has hit 81 sixes in 33 innings, making him the most successful six-hitter by a Full Member side. Next best on the list is Pakistan’s Sahibzada Farhan with 47 sixes in 32 games.
“If you see, I would never do range-hitting because I’m not that strong kind of guy. I feel I’m more of a timing batter. So, for me, I have to just watch the ball and get used to the conditions because we are playing all over India right now and so I have to adapt to the conditions very quickly. And for that, I plan a day before or probably whenever I get a net session. So, that’s always in my mind because these kinds of bowlers are going to bowl here and they got some plans, so I have to back it (my game) as well.”
Abhishek Sharma
Of the 35 deliveries he faced, 28 scored runs, with thirteen fours in it. Abhishek Sharma also wasted no time getting into the boundaries, smashing three fours in a row in the 7th over and two back-to-back sixes off Ish Sodhi’s deliveries in the 12th.
“I don’t feel it’s a high-risk [game]. For me, I wouldn’t say it’s my comfort zone, but it’s like I always want the team to be first because they want to use the first six overs and that’s what I’ve been practising before the nets as well. And that was always in my mind, because all the main bowlers from all the teams, they bowl first, second, three overs probably [early on]. And if I can score [off them] in the first three or four overs, then we have always got the upper hand.”
Abhishek Sharma
“One thing I’ve figured out is that if you want to hit all the balls or probably if you want to play at the strike rate of 200 or something then you have to carry that intent and you have to practice a lot for that. Because all these teams always have a plan for me because so far I think it’s just not the fielding [placements], it’s all about the pitching and the bowling as well. So it’s about the preparation I’m doing before the games because I’ve got two-three days or maybe a week before this. So I knew that I’m going to get challenged by these bowlers, but obviously I’m going to back my instinct and I’ve been practising a lot about that.”
Abhishek Sharma
