Abhishek Sharma, the No.1 T20I batter, has been having a tournament to forget as the runs have been hard to come by for the opening batter in the T20 World Cup. The left-hander might have scored a half-century against Zimbabwe in the Super 8s, but he failed to get going in the must-win encounter against the West Indies, walking back to the pavilion after scoring just 10. He once again lost his wicket to a spinner, after going back to the hut after handing a simple catch to Shimron Hetmyer off the bowling of Akeal Hosein.
Abhishek has managed just 80 runs in the six games he has played so far. He was also dismissed for three ducks in the group stage against the USA, Pakistan and the Netherlands. Amid the poor run of form, Abhishek received some advice from Ricky Ponting, the former Australia captain, ahead of the second semi-final between India and England at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday, March 5.
Ponting advised Abhishek to mentally freshen up and take it easy for a few days leading up to the semi-final against England at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
“Sometimes, when you’re going through a bit of a slump like that, it’s not always best just to go into the nets every day and bat for an hour and a half. Sometimes it’s better off to let these guys just have a couple of days away, like mentally freshen up. The skills don’t go anywhere. You don’t lose your skills,” Ponting noted.
“But in a tournament like this, when you’re consistently and constantly under pressure, and the results aren’t coming, sometimes just leaving your bag zipped up, turning up the training, getting a little bit of bowling done, getting your fielding done, but not actually batting and almost starving yourself of going back into the nets,” he added.
‘Got something up his sleeve’
The former World Cup-winning Australian captain exuded confidence in Abhishek, saying the team management headed by Gautam Gambhir should not drop the left-hander as he has a good record against England.
Last year in January, Abhishek slammed a century against England in the fifth and final T20I at the Wankhede, so he would have some good memories to lean back on. However, Ponting said that if the management wants to give Abhishek a break, Rinku Singh could come back in with Ishan Kishan opening alongside Sanju Samson.
“I think Abhishek’s got something up his sleeve for the semi-final,” said Ponting.
“We know on his day, he’s an out-and-out match-winner. But that’s the hard thing with this Indian side as well. And if you were to leave him out and you bring Rinku in, then you’ve got another match-winner coming into your side as well,” he added.
