Sunrisers Hyderabad’s decision to retain Abhishek Sharma before the 2022 mega auction surprised fans as well as the cricket experts. However, the young player justified his place with impressive showings in the last few Indian Premier League seasons.
He played a crucial role in Punjab’s first-ever Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy triumph where he got 485 runs in ten matches with an impressive strike rate of 192.46. Despite his success, the cricketer faces a seemingly lengthy journey to make it to the national team.
Debuting in first-class cricket alongside Shubman Gill, the opener’s career took a different trajectory, with Gill becoming a three-format player for India. In contrast, Abhishek is still striving to secure a spot in the national squad. The upcoming IPL edition is crucial for him, as a prolific run-scoring performance could potentially position the left-handed cricketer to replace a senior player in the national set-up after the T20 World Cup.
Discussing his batting technique, Sharma expressed his preference for capitalising on poor deliveries, irrespective of the cricket format. The 23-year-old said that his batting inspiration, Yuvraj Singh, made some major technical adjustments, and he has always aspired to replicate the legendary cricketer.
“The basics are the same. In T20s you try to score off every ball in the other formats, you have that extra time. But I have a simple philosophy. No matter what the format is, if a ball is there to be hit, I go at it with no half-measures. Whatever technical adjustments I needed it was done by Yuvi paaji,” Sharma told Hindustan Times.
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“He was my idol when I started playing cricket. I always wanted to be like him. I first met him in the Punjab team. Maybe he saw something in me. He always guides me. He really backs me. Whenever I get out for a low score, he always talks to me. He is always very confident about my next match. I get a lot of boost after talking to me. Even off the field, no one can get a better guide than Yuvraj Singh,” he added.
