India’s leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has lavished praise on Abhishek Sharma after India secured a 14-run win in the third T20I against the West Indies at the Holkar Stadium, Indore on Sunday. Sharma, who was dismissed cheaply in the second game, scored an impressive knock of 69 runs off just 30 balls.
The left-hander smashed six fours and five sixes in his blistering knock and scored his runs at a strike rate of 230. Thus, he played a key role in giving a solid start to the team and hosts eventually posted 223 runs on the board.
Chahal said Abhishek has backed his natural game, which has helped him reap rewards at the top level.
“Absolutely, the way he started in the first three matches of the World Cup, the runs hadn’t come, but then he scored runs in the final, and then the runs in the Asian Games final. When he fires, he finishes the match. You don’t have to go to the other batters,” Chahal said on Star Sports.
“The best thing about him is that he is playing the same way as he started in his first match. He hasn’t changed anything in his game, and that’s a big reason why he is successful,” he added.
During his knock, Abhishek also completed 2000 T20I runs and became the fastest to reach the milestone in terms of balls faced, getting there off 1024 balls.
Chahal highlighted that Sharma did well as he adopted a waiting game against Roston Chase in the Powerplay overs.
“He showed respect in the first over. He figured out the pace on the wicket and how much it was spinning. If you are an opener and have the ability to cover later, his decision was right to have a look at two or three balls in the first over, and he knew at what pace the ball was coming and how much it was spinning. So, it became easy for him when Chase came to bowl his second over,” he said.
The former RCB spinner reckons the WI spinners should have bowled a wider line to Abhishek when he was giving himself room.
“He has the reach. When he moves away from the stumps, it comes to the bowler’s mind that he is showing him his stumps and is standing on the fifth or sixth stump, and whether he would miss, but he doesn’t miss. He wants you to bowl there. He is hitting with just timing and is not putting any power. He is already standing on the sixth stump. So you have the option to bowl on the ninth stump. It won’t be called a wide, but you keep following him and getting hit for sixes,” Chahal observed.
The fourth T20I between India and the West Indies will be played at Hyderabad on Wednesday.
