Bharath Ramaraj in Dubai
On another of those humid nights in Dubai, two free-spirited batters belonging to different edicts of batsmanship were looking to wrest control. The duo of Abhishek Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav shared an alliance of 59 against Sri Lanka, and one couldn’t help but notice the contrasting fortunes of the pair. With Abhishek, bursts of energy gushed forth through the majestic arc of the bat-swing and the eye-popping follow-through of the willow.
Point, long-off, fine leg, third man, extra-cover, midwicket – You name an area of the field and he targeted it with his gift-wrapped skills. At that juncture, while flipping through the dictionary to locate the apt adjective for Abhishek’s pyrotechnics, you pondered whether words have limitations.
More importantly, Abhishek’s power-hitting isn’t just restricted to Powerplay overs. Sanath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka’s head coach, didn’t just shower praises on Abhishek, but also commended the coaching staff for backing him to play his ultra-aggressive game.
“Abhishek Sharma is playing his natural game, and they have encouraged him to play his natural game,” Jayasuriya told reporters after the match. “That’s the key, because if someone is playing naturally, we need to encourage him to continue that.
“But whenever he wants to slow down, he knows how to do that as well. After six overs, if he wants to bat longer, he’s managing it. Day by day, he’s getting experience and batting really well. The good thing is that the coaching staff has given him the licence to play his natural game. That’s the key.”
Generally, a column on Suryakumar too would be filled with superlatives. Sadly, that hasn’t been the case in T20Is for almost a year now. During that period, he has looked a rather pale shadow of his former self.
Barring one drive via extra-cover, he often mistimed his strokes. One of the ways to gauge Suryakumar’s lack of form is that he tends to premeditate a lot of his strokes through the on-side during such a phase. On Friday night too, he mostly connected with thin air as he repeatedly tried to give it a mighty thump.
Once again, it has to be mentioned that Suryakumar did put on some impressive performances in the 2025 IPL. And to cut him some slack, he is returning from a surgery. However, an average of 11.36 and a strike-rate of 104.16 in his last 15 T20Is tells a story.
On the field, Suryakumar’s leadership is impressive. He marshals his resources quite well and he seems to be well respected by his teammates. But if India are to defend not just the Asia Cup but also the T20 World Cup next year, the king of 360-degree batting has to rediscover his form.
Meanwhile, the only worry with Abhishek is whether the law of averages will catch up with him. Pakistan, India’s opponent in the final, will hope for a rare failure. Not that such a maxim is going to worry Abhishek. His inner voice seems to tell him to concentrate on each and every ball, and remove the first two letters from ‘impossible’.
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