Bharath Ramaraj in Dubai
In the India-UAE Asia Cup game played at the Dubai International Stadium, Abhishek Sharma smacked the first ball that he faced from Haider Ali over wide long-off. And the second offering from the spinner rocketed away via the extra-cover region. Abhishek’s ultra-aggressive instincts go far beyond just one game. Last year, he had tonked Gerald Coetzee, a fast bowler, for a four off the first ball at St George’s Park. In the very next T20I of that series, the left-hand batter charged down the track to his first ball, only to miss out on an attempted slog.
In the subsequent T20I rubber versus England, he had once more skipped down the track against a bowler of the calibre of Jofra Archer. And in the final game of that series, only a fine yorker from Mark Wood first up had stopped Abhishek from taking the aggressive route. He did, however, take on the tearaway from Durham with a pull off his second ball.
Those instances capsulise Abhishek’s intent in the Powerplay. Just do some number-crunching and you will notice that his T20I strike-rate stands at a whopping 210.8 in the Powerplay overs this year. Even his overall T20I strike-rate of 179.9 in the Powerplay overs makes for an impressive reading. Over 53 IPL matches, his powerplay strike-rate is a noteworthy 160.3, with the 2024 season turning out to be his peak, when it went up to 203.
In simple words, Abhishek is a high-impact player. In India’s upcoming Asia Cup encounter, against Pakistan, Abhishek would be up against Shaheen Afridi’s left-arm swing. The subtext to the matchup is that there is a school of thought that a left-arm pacer can trouble either Abhishek or Travis Head, his opening partner at Sunrisers Hyderabad, with a delivery that comes in with the angle and then occasionally straightens.
Mitchell Starc gave a demonstration of it in the 2024 IPL, with the ace left-armer cleaning up both left-hand batters in two different matches. Just to throw in a caveat, Shaheen is perhaps not at Starc’s level when it comes to bowling to left-hand batters, even though he averages an impressive 19.7 against them in T20s this year.
Shaheen would still fancy his chances of dislodging Abhishek upfront, especially considering his high bat-lift and the massive arc that he creates with his swing path. From that perspective, the Indian management could be mulling over having Shubman Gill take first strike. The right-hand batter has had his fair share of success against Shaheen ever since he cracked a ton against Pakistan in the Under-19 World Cup.
Whatever the outcome of the Shaheen-Abhishek matchup, it is a contest that is worth waiting for – High-impact player versus Pakistan’s pace spearhead.
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