Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan believes that Abhishek Sharma should have taken more responsibility in the second T20I of the ongoing five-match series against Australia.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Irfan said that Abhishek, who top-scored in the game with 68, should have faced more deliveries during his partnership with Harshit Rana.
“The powerplay had gone perfectly for him; he was playing his shots freely even as wickets kept falling at the other end,” he said. “But during that partnership, most of the strike went to Harshit Rana. Out of those 47 balls, Abhishek faced only 14. That was a crucial phase, roughly half the innings, and that’s where Abhishek needed to take a bit more responsibility.”
Except for Abhishek, all the other batters failed to make an impact in that game, and India lost half their side when the score was 49. Then Abhishek and Rana stitched together a partnership of 56 runs off 47 balls, which was instrumental in taking India to a respectable total. However, in that partnership, Abhishek faced only 14 balls.
“No doubt, Abhishek Sharma is currently India’s No. 1 T20 batter, but in this situation he needed a little more game awareness. Even if Harshit Rana was getting more of the strike, could Abhishek have rotated it better to face more deliveries himself? If I were part of that dressing room, I would’ve told Abhishek: ‘Brother, you should’ve taken more responsibility there. Thirty-three balls faced by Harshit Rana and only 14 by you, that’s a big gap.’ So this is one area where Abhishek Sharma needs to focus more going forward,” he added.
For the latest sports news follow- Revsportz