ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
Ahmedabad, Feb 19: The legendary Sunil Gavaskar believes Abhishek Sharma is struggling to cope with the weight of expectations in the ongoing T20 World Cup and wants the big-hitting opener to avoid playing across the line at the start of his innings.
Entering the tournament as the top-ranked T20I batter, Abhishek is experiencing a significant slump in form, having registered three consecutive ducks.“Abhishek Sharma is a lovely guy, but expectations seem to be weighing on him. If he had started well against USA, it would have been different. Now, the pressure of being the big six-hitter and top batter is showing.“With his shot range, he needs to spend time in the middle. He cannot try to hit a boundary or six on the first ball of his innings. If the big shots come, fine. But he shouldn’t force himself to play the big shots across the line,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.Abhishek is yet to score a run in his maiden ICC event, having played against the USA, Pakistan and Netherlands.Gavaskar said the 25-year-old left-hander needs to play smart cricket at the start of his innings.
“Take a single and get off the mark. Even four dot balls don’t matter. He can make up for them later. He needs to play smart at the start. Spend an over or two settling in, then play his natural game.“First, just get off the mark. Every batter wants that first run. Once he gets it, everything will fall into place,” he said.India on Wednesday rode on Shivam Dube’s attacking 66 off 31 balls and Varun Chakravarthy’s 3 for 14 to beat the Netherlands by 17 runs and top Group A.
Gavaskar spoke highly of Dube and said the left-handed all-rounder just needs to add one shot in his game to become “a really scary batter”.“Shivam Dube is very difficult to bowl to because he has a wide range of shots. You can bowl outside off stump, but he still has the power to hit over long on. He is not just looking to hit over mid-wicket and square-leg. He can clear long off as well. (PTI)
