The ubiquity of Abhishek Sharma’s merry hitting has now become a part of India’s batting fabric in T20Is. By his gung-ho standards, the southpaw was a bit subdued to start with on Wednesday. The first ball he faced from Jacob Duffy was a wide. A couple of dots followed. Enough was enough. Abhishek sent the final ball of the over out of the ground. It felt like a mishit, but he went with a full follow-through.
Have India ever had an opener like Abhishek in T20 cricket? At times, he offers a throwback to Sanath Jayasuriya. The Sri Lankan had redefined opening the innings in white-ball cricket in the mid-1990s. Abhishek belongs to a generation that embraces a devil-may-care approach. The Punjab da puttar is not redefining batting in T20 cricket. This is the go-to method for every top-order batter in this format these days.
Abhishek has been doing it with amazing consistency in this fickle version of cricket. Over the past 12-odd months, he has scored 943 runs in 22 T20Is at an average of 44.9. In the first T20I against New Zealand in Nagpur on Wednesday, he blitzed to 84 off 35 balls that had five fours and eight sixes. The 25-year-old flirts with 200-plus strike-rates for fun.
Abhishek reached his half-century in 22 balls, becoming the first player to score eight T20I fifties in 25 or fewer deliveries. “This boy will win us the World Cup,” the Nagpur crowd collectively believed.
India in the shortest format are a different beast. And they offered the blueprint for the upcoming World Cup. The pitch wasn’t a highway. It was a bit soft underneath and a few deliveries kept low. New Zealand bowlers used the slower deliveries well. The hosts kept losing wickets at regular intervals, but they never allowed their opponents to control the pace. Abhishek, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh — everyone started attacking from the outset and kept going.
Hopefully, Surya’s 32 off 22 balls was the first step towards resurrection. The way he danced down the track to meet a length ball from Kristian Clarke and hit it for a four, it never felt like he was short of confidence. In the debutant seamer’s next over, a six behind the wicket was vintage Surya. With Abhishek toying with the bowling at the other end, the skipper could still take his time and bat at his own pace. Gradually, he grew into the game enough to bring out his trademark shots against the spinners. A lofted drive over mid-wicket against Ish Sodhi was the shot of the match.
Spare a thought for Rinku. Shubman Gill’s inclusion in the T20I set-up wasn’t only detrimental to the top-order balance, it also adversely affected India’s death-overs batting. Jitesh Sharma had to be brought in at the expense of Rinku and it was a bad call.
The Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee has made the course correction before the T20 World Cup and now the team has all the bases covered. Rinku’s 44 not out off 22 balls took India’s total to 238/7. A 21-run final over bowled by Daryl Mitchell made the task almost improbable for the Kiwis.
When New Zealand batted, Arshdeep Singh accounted for Devon Conway in the first over. Rachin Ravindra returned to the dug-out close on his heels, done in by Pandya. The tourists slumped to 1/2. Game over. Glenn Phillips’ 78 off 40 balls entertained a turnout of 45,000 and delayed the inevitable. New Zealand finished on 190/7 to lose by 48 runs.
For India, poor catching remains the only concern.
Brief scores: India 238/7 in 20 ovs (Abhishek Sharma 84, Rinku Singh 44 not out; Jacob Duffy 2/27) beat New Zealand 190/7 in 20 ovs (Glenn Phillips 78; Varun Chakravarthy 2/37, Shivam Dube 2/28) by 48 runs.
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