TimesofIndia.com in Ahmedabad: An hour before the Indian cricket team is scheduled to arrive at the Narendra Modi Stadium, ground staff are gearing up to prepare. Rolling is underway at the practice square and makeshift nets have been placed around the pitch for the Men in Blue’s first and only training session ahead of their final T20 World Cup group match against the Netherlands.
A spot in the Super Eights is already sealed after three convincing wins, but this game will attract huge interest. Firstly because the same venue will host the Super Eights against South Africa on February 22 and secondly because of Abhishek Sharma.
All the pre-match preparations were focused on the handsome opener from Punjab. Since joining the team, the combative southpaw has earned a reputation for his continued havoc within the organization, and he’s been the sole reason opponents stay up late while plotting his downfall.
Careful planning by the opponents – the United States and Pakistan – means he is yet to score his first World Cup goal. A nasty stomach infection sandwiched between those two games didn’t help either. The golden duck in the tournament opener was followed by a four-goal duck against Pakistan in Colombo. Prior to these matches, the 25-year-old, who had a healthy average of 35.05 and a strike rate of 193.29, failed to open his account twice in the five-match T20I series against New Zealand at home.
Four ducks in the final seven innings was not an ideal read for a player who instilled fear in his opponents. He got another chance to regain form before the T20 World Cup ends on Wednesday. The optional nets practice on the eve of the game was a long and lonely ordeal for the opener, who spent a lot of time practicing his range against spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Washington Sundar. The usual big songs are on display, but they’re not the cleanest hits and the sweetest sounds.
Rightly so, he was given a free run during the batting as head coach Gautam Gambhir stood behind the net where Tilak Varma and Linku Singh were batting. The flow and swing of the bat are an integral part of his hitting, and once that gets back to normal, he’s going to run with the velocity that everyone is used to seeing from a lefty. Even if the connection isn’t ideal, Abhishek is able to achieve better fluidity and extend his elbow well in different areas of the pitch.
“He was out in the first over in the last game. So one thing we will definitely do, we over-analyze unnecessarily,” was batting coach Sitamshu Kotak’s reply when asked about Abhishek’s failure in the two games.
“He is a guy who has a plan in place and he does it the way he wants to and obviously we discussed the opponents, their bowling, their bowling strength, whatever they have done in the last few games. All that is normal for everyone, not just Abhishek,” the coach added.
advertise
Team India, led by captain Suryakumar Yadav and coach Gautam Gambhir, has followed a high-risk format in the T20Is. The main aim of every batsman is to put pressure on the bowler from the outset. This dominance explains their strong performance in this tournament and why they are the high-scoring team in bilateral matches ahead of the multi-nation tournament.
“Abhishek has scored runs in games before this. Now in the T20 format, sometimes in 10 balls, 30 runs is equally important. Secondly, honestly, we are looking at all the batsmen or all the players. We don’t think there is a player who is not getting his runs. Because in T20, There is a high-stakes game and players are going to be out wherever they are. If we start to get put under so much pressure, I think the players will be put under unnecessary pressure, so he has a clear plan and that’s important for us,” Kotak explained when asked about the team’s mentality.
Instead, the coach sees the bright side. He was happy about the team’s efforts to keep Abhishek quiet. Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson admitted as much after the loss to India, the latest example of opponents seeing the fearless batsman as a genuine player in the Indian line-up.
“First of all, Abhishek will get a lot of credit if they plan and talk about him. They care about Abhishek so much because I am sure he must have done well. But we planned and he also came up with his ideas. Even in the last game, I don’t think anyone could have planned to get him out in the middle. He sat up and left. It didn’t matter. If they were so concerned, it’s a good sign for us and it’s a lot of credit to him the way he played,” Kotak said.
For settings that successfully adopt high-risk templates, the focus remains on responding to the situation and doing what the team requires at that stage. Just as Suryakumar had to go deep against the US, both he and Tilak had to hold their ground when Pakistan used the spin choke in Colombo.
“I think it’s important to play offensive cricket, but it doesn’t change just because of a few failures by the players. If anything, the plan changes depending on the situation. So whether someone scores two runs in the innings, or someone… but it’s more about what the team needs at that time, in those conditions,” Kotak explained.
However, the same rule does not apply to Abhishek. He doesn’t act conventionally and takes a very direct approach. Watch the ball, hit the ball. While think tanks are not losing any sleep over his absence, if Abhishek returns to form and significantly increases his run-scoring in the T20 World Cup, the entire country will surely get a good night’s sleep while the opponents will fall back into sleepless nights – which is not yet the target.