“He is a prisoner of his own reputation,” Aakash Chopra is worried about the future of Abhishek Sharma in the Indian T20I team
Abhishek Sharma failed with the bat in the first T20I against South Africa in Durban as Aakash Chopra questioned his place in the side.
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Abhishek Sharma, Aakash Chopra (Via X)
Team India faced off against South Africa in the first of the four-match T20I series. They won the match on the back of a blistering century from Sanju Samson. However, his opening partner, Abhishek Sharma, faltered yet again as he was dismissed for seven runs of eight balls while trying to clear mid-off. Former Indian opener, Aakash Chopra, feels that Sharma is sitting on a ticking time bomb and his place in the team is in danger.
Chopra highlighted that the two openers of the team are showing contrasting performances. Samson is shining, while Sharma is disappointing with the bat. Chopra went on to say that Sharma’s exploits with the bat have been poor post his century against Zimbabwe, and he is not performing as per expectations.
There is Sanju (Samson), whose stars are shining bright, on one side. On the other side is Abhishek Sharma, whose stars have fallen. When he had struck a century against Zimbabwe, he was that shining new bright star. However, after that, he has fallen drastically. The shot he played in this match as well against Gerald Coetzee, it seems like he is a prisoner of his own reputation.
Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel
Chopra stated that Sharma is repeatedly failing, and if it continues, then there will be one moment when his spot in the Indian team will be questioned. Furthermore, Chopra claimed that Sharma will be trusted for the next three games, but the opportunities are slowly slipping out of his hands.
Abhishek Sharma has failed to put up notable performances after his century in Zimbabwe
Sharma showed what he is capable of during his stint with Sunrisers Hyderabad while opening the batting with Travis Head in IPL 2024. He was destroying bowling attacks by taking on the bowlers right from the get-go. His performances earned him a call-up for the tour of Zimbabwe, where he scored a duck on his debut. However, he smashed a scintillating century in the very next game. However, what has happened after that has been very poor.
He has played eight innings in T20Is so far and has scored 166 runs at an average of 20.75 with a strike rate of 164.35. Sharma has just that one century to his name where he scored 101 runs. So, basically, the youngster has scored just 65 runs in the other seven innings in this format.
Meanwhile, India went on to beat the Proteas by 61 runs in Durban and take a 1-0 lead in the series. Samson was adjudged the Man of the Match for his brilliant century, as he became the first Indian and the fourth overall to smash consecutive T20I centuries.
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Rohit Sarkar
(271 Articles Published)