Navi Mumbai: The Indian batting line-up is the talk of the T20 World Cup even before it has started and rightly so, given the sheer dominance it has shown over the last couple of years and the scary proposition it presents to opposition teams.
Abhishek Sharma: The Unstoppable Force
Right on top of that heady mix is a seriously good 25-year-old batter going by the name of Abhishek Sharma, who is unstoppable at the moment.
The Punjab batter was in rollicking form in the recently concluded T20I series that served as a warm-up for the T20 World Cup where he blasted off with an 84 off just 35 balls in the first T20I.
With eight sixes and five fours and a strike rate of 240, the southpaw had stamped his authority on the hapless Kiwi bowlers in Nagpur and with India looking to defend their hard-earned T20 World Cup title, the swashbuckler is a critical cog in the wheel.
Abhishek’s T20I career stats offer a glimpse of the destruction he has inflicted upon the opposition and a sneak peek into the infinite potential the future holds in his wake.
Elite Numbers
The India opener has accumulated 1297 runs in 38 matches with two hundreds and eight fifties and most importantly the stat that really matters in T20I cricket, a strike rate of 194.74.
With numbers such as that, one can safely assume Abhishek will lead India’s expected batting charge in the marquee tournament where they can go all the way in all likelihood.
Giving him company would be a fellow left-hander Ishan Kishan who is unleashing mayhem all of his own.
The fifth T20I in Thiruvananthapuram where he slammed his maiden T20I hundred against a clueless New Zealand was an illustration of the gargantuan potential that the man possesses.
On Wednesday at the DY Patil, Kishan showed exactly why he is the perfect foil for Abhishek Sharma with a blinder of an innings firing on all cylinders to rack up 53 off just 20 balls with two fours and seven sixes at strike rate of 265.
Ishan and Abhishek are marauding against both the pacers and spinners at equal measure and the six-hitting ability of the duo is something else.
Abhishek has 88 sixes in T20Is while Ishan has hoisted 52 and has been in ominous form lately auguring well for Team India’s World Cup prospects.
Although Ishan is just two years older than Abhishek at 27, the duo are proving to be India’s strongest weapons of mass destruction at the global stage such as the World Cup.
It will take some doing for India to not win the World Cup with the wealth of batting riches in their possession with the likes of Abhishek, Ishan and Co.
