“My best is yet to come,” Abhishek Sharma had declared going into this IPL season. Four games on, the Sunrisers Hyderabad all-rounder is getting close to it. For validation, it can’t get better than SRH captain and one of the world’s best fast bowlers, Pat Cummins, saying he wouldn’t fancy bowling at him with the new ball. Even if the Aussie said that in jest, it won’t be hard to believe considering the stroke play Abhishek has displayed so far at the top of the order.
Abhishek is striking at 217.56 in this IPL – the highest among batters who have faced at least 50 balls so far. He has already hit 15 sixes, bettered only by teammate Heinrich Klaasen (17). Such has been his hitting prowess in the powerplay that opening partner, Travis Head, is playing second fiddle despite his strike rate of 180.64.
He has already scored a 16-ball fifty against Mumbai Indians and many would agree that the 27 runs (1nb) he hit off Mukesh Chaudhury’s first over gave such a head start to SRH that the slowness of the wicket didn’t have any bearings on their 166-run chase against CSK.
Not often do you get the Player-of-the-Match award after getting dismissed in the third over of the match. But by then, Abhishek had scored 37 off just 12 balls.
It’s still early days but there are solid signs this might just be Abhishek’s year. He has come into this IPL on the back of a stellar show in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, emerging as the tournament’s second-highest run-getter with 485 at a mindboggling strike rate of 192.46. His consistent brisk starts at the top of the order were one of the reasons Punjab won their maiden domestic T20 title last year.
Scoring runs quickly has never been an issue with the stylish left-hander. He has a career T20 strike rate of 145, and despite playing his first few seasons in the middle-order – he only got a chance to open regularly in 2022 – he had an impressive strike rate of 137 in IPL before this season.
It’s the consistency that hurts him. But with scores of 32, 63, 29 and 37 in the first four matches, Abhishek has set off in the right direction this IPL. “I have a simple formula. Mujhe ball mere area mein dikhti hai toh main maar deta hu bina kuch soche (If I see the ball in my area, I hit it without giving it a second thought). I try to score off every ball in T20s,” he said.
SRH move and change of fortunes
He started his IPL career with Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) in 2018 but with scarce opportunities, switched to SRH ahead of IPL 2021. Next year, he was pushed up the order. “I have always been an opener. But in the beginning, the team required me to play in the middle-order. It’s a bit difficult when you are an all-rounder. You can’t suddenly get to open the batting. I kind of suffered in that. But I never said no to any challenge. Wherever I got to bat, I tried my best. But deep down, I always knew I could bat better up the order, play my shots freely.”
SRH had already let go of one of its biggest stars David Warner ahead of the mega auctions. Abhishek was not among those retained but was bought for a whopping ₹6.5 crore.
“In the absence of Warner, I was given a chance to open the entire season, which helped my confidence a lot.”
Another thing happened in SRH that changed his life, the chance to interact with Brian Lara, then Sunrisers head coach. “When I was with Lara for two years, he told me to be tactical. How to score runs in different situations, how to just take a backseat when bowlers are bowling well. He stressed on planning. He always talked about targetting bowlers and calculating what runs I would score before the bowler starts to bowl,” the 23-year-old said.
Abhishek’s best season was IPL 2022, scoring 426 runs (S/R 133.13), but last year was disappointing. But he received a shot in the arm after being picked for the Emerging Team’s Asia Cup. It indicated that he was being watched; a big IPL season was just what he needed to make a stronger case. “I don’t worry too much about selections. Yuvi paaji (Yuvraj Singh) has always told me to just do my job. But IPL is very important for any youngster. If I have a good IPL, it will help me grab more attention.”
Due to the Impact Player rule, one aspect that goes unnoticed about Abhishek is his left-arm spin bowling. “Bowling is very important for me. I’ve been contributing in all three departments since my U14 days. I feel something is missing when I don’t do well in any of my disciplines. I give equal importance to my bowling.”