Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar has urged Abhishek Sharma to take a single before playing aggressively. Sharma was dismissed for a duck against Pakistan at the R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, on Sunday.

The left-hander was dismissed for a golden duck against Namibia in the team’s tournament opener. Abhishek recently scored 182 runs in five matches against New Zealand at a blistering strike rate of almost 250.

The southpaw is the number one batter in the ICC T20I rankings and he would look to get back amongst the runs.

“My unsolicited advice to Abhishek Sharma, just knock a single first. That’s it. Then you can start banging after that. But just knock a single, take a quick single where your legs also move quickly and then after that go on,” Gavaskar said in an exclusive interview with Sports Today.

Gavaskar said India would want Abhishek Sharma to get back into form in the upcoming matches of the T20I showpiece.

“One odd thing which India would like to see getting better at is Abhishek’s form. Once he gets going, everything will fall in place. His role is in the first six overs to give a flying start. The day that will happen, we will see them scoring 200. But yesterday was the right example, where even 175 in such conditions was a winning total, you focus on that rather than looking to score 200. Trying to score those extra runs sometimes can put you in trouble,” he added.

On the other hand, Gavaskar showered praise on Ishan Kishan after the left-hander scored 77 runs off just 40 balls to help India post 175 runs on the board.

“It is the confidence that one has in oneself. He got a hundred against New Zealand. He is in form and good touch and he is cashing in on that. What is important is that he is not taking good form for granted. A lot of batters do that and look to go bang bang. You can go out of your territory once you are set, and that is exactly what we have seen from him,” Sunil Gavaskar said.

India will next take on the Netherlands at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, on Wednesday.