Sanjay Manjrekar has picked Abhishek Sharma as his “perfect model” for T20 batting technique, but it was the temperament bit — the “extremely unselfish” approach to hundreds and milestones — that he lingered on in a recent Instagram video.
Manjrekar framed Abhishek as a batter built for modern T20 demands: a cleaner swing path, less clutter between bat and ball, and a mindset that treats every delivery like a scoring opportunity rather than a step towards a personal landmark.
“Right, just want to talk about Abhishek Sharma. What a sensational player and what a sensational T20 talent. It’s actually a very interesting thing when you look at Abhishek Sharma’s technique and then compare it with, you know, Test cricket technique and T20 cricket technique,” Manjrekar said.
“Now Abhishek Sharma is the perfect model when it comes to technique in T20 cricket,” he added, before arguing that classic “bat and pad close together” fundamentals can become a trap in the shortest format. “Now if you do that in T20 cricket, you’re finished. You’ll have a strike rate of 20.”
Manjrekar’s central technical point was simple: free the bat. “So in T20 cricket, it’s exactly the opposite. Don’t get your bat and pad close together,” he said. “In fact, do everything possible to make sure that nothing comes in the way of your bat, big bat swing, nothing, no part of your body so the bat is clear to just come down and hit the ball.”
He called it a non-negotiable for modern T20 batting. “So it’s a very simple T20 technique that you must embrace is that don’t let anything hinder that bat coming down and hitting the ball and that is what Abhishek Sharma does wonderfully. So it’s a god-gift talent,” Manjrekar said.
But the sharpest praise arrived when he moved from method to intent — the idea that Abhishek’s best quality isn’t just range-hitting, it’s how little he cares about protecting his numbers once a milestone comes into view.
“The other thing to like about him, he’s extremely unselfish. When you look at his hundreds that he’s got in T20 international, their strike rate is over 200. He’s not somebody who’s going to slow down just because he’s in the 90s,” Manjrekar said.
In Manjrekar’s telling, that is the separator in a format where ego often hides behind “game awareness”. Abhishek, he said, stays in attack-mode even when personal landmarks are one clean hit away.
“He doesn’t care about getting out as well, which is a great quality to have in T20 cricket. Not afraid to get out. So first ball, he’ll take a risk and try and hit it for a six. Such batters are extremely dangerous. Not those who will hit a boundary and then look to extend their innings. So this is a guy who tries to maximize returns on every ball,” he added.
Manjrekar summed it up as a batter optimising for team impact, not personal security. “So yes, great ball hitting talent, unselfish, not afraid to get out, doesn’t care about milestones and that is what makes him a sensational player and he’s pretty good looking as well,” he said.
The tone is also notable because Manjrekar has, in the past, been part of the wider conversation around tempo in T20s — including calling out what he felt were phases of slow scoring from Virat Kohli in the format. This time, his frame was clear: Abhishek represents the other end of the spectrum — a batter who doesn’t wait for the game to come to him, doesn’t protect personal milestones, and treats every ball as a chance to hurt the opposition.
