Explosive Indian opener Abhishek Sharma, who scored the fastest T20I century among Test playing nations in the third and final T20I against Afghanistan, has admitted that there will be ups and downs in every batter’s career.
Speaking at the post-match presentation after winning the player of the match and the player of the series awards, Sharma credited the head coach Gautam Gambhir and skipper Shreyas Iyer for supporting him during his tough phase.
“I’ve told in the first interview as well. We’ve been doing this last two years. One or two bad series won’t define us as a batting department. We wanted to dominate throughout the whole year before the world cup no matter who the opposition is. I feel as a batter, sometimes you have up and downs. The most important thing is as a team we have to be together and support each other. That’s how these innings happen,” Abhishek Sharma said in the post-match presentation.
“I feel it’s all dependent on my process before every series. It’s very particular for me, against who I play and their bowlers. How I’m going to utilise the powerplay. Who’s going to bowl the powerplay, the 7th over, the 8th over. And the way I play, it’s very important for the captain and the coach to be on your side. You have to get surety. I feel this is because of them as well,” he added.
India was tasked with batting first, and they posted a daunting total of 221/7 in 20 overs. Abhishek Sharma (108) and Sanju Samson (50) were the top scorers. In the chase, Afghanistan got all out for 94 runs in 14.1 overs, losing by 127 runs. Nitish Kumar Reddy and Ravi Bishnoi scalped three wickets apiece as India sealed the series 3-0.
“I feel I don’t want to restrict any area. It’s just watch the ball and play according to it. It’s very simple from day one. I just want to express myself. Just see the ball and hit the ball. You can’t be sure you’ll be doing well all the time but the culture we’ve developed in our team is to dominate and it’s been going well so far,” he concluded.
