Abhishek Sharma announced his arrival on the international stage with a scorching ton during the second T20I of his career against Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club on Sunday, and he did so using someone else’s bat.
The 23 year old said that it was Shubman Gill’s bat which he used after scoring a quick fire 100 off just 47 balls which guided India to a mammoth score of 234/2 in their allotted 20 overs and then helped them win by a whopping margin of 100 runs thereby leveling the ongoing five match series at one all.
The Punjab batsman made this revelation when he spoke to reporters soon after securing a victory for his team. “Today I played with Shubman Gill’s bat…whenever I think there is a pressure game or this is a match where I should perform, I usually take his bat,” said the batting sensation, who, like Gill, hails from Punjab and is also mentored by India great Yuvraj Singh.
Opening the batting Abhishek hit eight sixes and seven fours in an innings that came out at an astonishing strike rate of 212. 77 before being dismisse by Masakadza Wellington, left-arm spinner.
Ruturaj Gaikwad contributed an equally blistering 77 not out off just 47 balls followed by Rinku Singh with an unbeaten knock of 48 from only 22 balls faced.
India registered their biggest win over Zimbabwe where pacers Avesh Khan and Mukesh Kumar claimed three wickets each.
Abhishek has been playing cricket together with Gill since they were children under-12 years age group.
“It has been quite beautiful, starting as kids of 11-12 years…When I was selected for the country, the first call I received was from Shubman,” said Abhishek in the post-match press conference.
Abhishek revealed that he has borrowed Gill’s bat before.
“It happened from the under-12 days, as whenever I play a pressure game I ask him for a bat. It had happened in the IPL as well. Today was no exception as it went well as it usually happens,” said Abhishek, who played IPL 2024 for Sunrisers Hyderabad and knocked on BCCI selectors’ doors with his big-hitting prowess.
He attributed his success and courage to Yuvraj Singh and his father.
“Yuvi paaji has made a big contribution. I don’t consider myself as sixer-king or something like that. Special thanks to my dad for allowing me to play lofted shots. Generally, coaches don’t allow a young batter to hit lofted shots. But my dad always said if you wanted to play a lofted shot, then it should go out of the ground. So I wanted to follow that,” he added.
India lost the first match of this series in which Abhishek featured in batting at number three but got out without opening his account by scoring 0 off 1 ball though he hardly felt any pressure then.
“I think the IPL plays a big role in this (handling pressure). We did not feel much pressure when we came here to represent the country as debutants. Unfortunately, we didn’t start well in the first match where we lost narrowly. But my mindset and approach were pretty much similar – to show the right intent,” he explained.
“My execution today (in 2nd T20I) was better than yesterday. Just calculating whether should I take risk about hitting boundaries in first over or just playing on merit of ball. Whenever I get few balls past boundary ropes or beyond ropes, so i believe it is going be my day.”
