Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra feels Abhishek Sharma has shades of his mentor Yuvraj Singh in him. Sharma played a majestic knock of 75 runs off just 28 balls against Lucknow Super Giants at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on Wednesday.
SRH went on to chase down 166 runs in just 9.4 overs as they won with 62 balls to spare. Sharma, who has batted aggressively in the ongoing IPL 2024, completed his fifty off just 19 balls.
The youngster added 107 runs in the Powerplay overs along with his opening partner, Travis Head, who scored an unbeaten knock of 89 off just 30 balls.
“Abhishek Sharma is a very good story. If I compare their (Abhishek and Head’s) hitting styles, Abhishek’s style seems cleaner to me. The backlift comes nicely, it reminds you slightly of Yuvraj Singh, and the downswing is very good. You see class in his batting,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
The renowned commentator lauded Sharma for almost matching Travis Head toe to toe against LSG in his blistering knock.
“It seems like Head is taking people’s class, as though he is just beating them up, and it seems just like an extension of cricketing shots in his (Abhishek’s) case. He also hits sixes. He hit six sixes and eight fours, and scored 75 runs off 28 balls. If Travis Head had a strike rate of 296, he also had a strike rate close to 270,” Chopra observed.
The former KKR player backed the Punjab batter to soon receive his maiden call-up into the Indian team.
“I feel Abhishek Sharma should be in the Indian team not too long from now. His name should come in the Indian team. We cannot say that we don’t have strikers. We have many. You can see Abhishek Sharma. After that, Yashasvi Jaiswal hits at the top,” Chopra said.
The reputed commentator revealed that India has a plethora of hard-hitting options in the shortest format of the game.
“Suryakumar Yadav, Shashank Singh, Ashutosh Sharma, Rahul Tewatia, Nitish Reddy, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Rishabh Pant, Riyan Parag, Sanju Samson, Prabhsimran Singh – all of them hit. There are plenty and I might have forgotten many names,” Chopra observed.
Sunrisers Hyderabad will next take on Gujarat Titans at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on Thursday.
