The Sunrisers Hyderabad opener seemed like the one who would change the face of the T20I cricket in India. But the Punjab-born batter has not impressed outside of the IPL for Team India. In all of his performances wearing the Indian Blue, Abhishek Sharma has hardly been influential with the bat in hand. Moreover, he hasn’t been bowling as well which takes away one of his major plus points in T20I cricket.
In the 8 T20I matches he has played for India, Abhishek Sharma has only scored 159 runs in 7 innings with the bat and picked up only a meagre figure of 3 wickets. Out of these 7 innings, one was a 100-run innings against the weak opponents Zimbabwe. That means that in his other 6 outings, he has only scored 59 runs. Very poor figures for someone opening for India against the likes of Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
On the other hand, those who got chances around him have kept on Impressive with the bat. Shubhman Gill and Yashaswi Jaiswal have pretty much cemented themselves as the pair who will lead the next Indian Cricketing Generation with the bat. Meanwhile, Ruturaj Gaikwad remains available for Selection irrespective of the politics that has been keeping him out of contention. Also, In Sanju Samson, there is yet another contender for the Opener’s position for India who with his Blistering Century against Bangladesh that set numerous amounts of cricketing records, has made quite the impression in the minds of the selectors in BCCI.
With the kind of depressing performances Abhishek Sharma has been putting in, it doesn’t seem likely that India will have him in contention for the opening spot.
Especially with the competition performing so much better than Yuvraj Singh’s Apprentice.
The time is now or never for the Left-Handed Powerhouse to start performing for India. Do you think Abhishek Sharma deserves more chances to prove himself in the Indian Setup? Or should he be dropped from the squad? Let us know your opinion in the comments section.
