England head coach Brendon McCullum has said that Abhishek Sharma has shown that he is a batter capable of doing what some of the greats in the game have done in the past with his record century at the Wankhede Stadium. Abhishek almost single-handedly flattened England in the fifth T20I with a 54-ball 135 which propelled India to a 150-run win.
"First and foremost, the innings we saw from Abhishek is as good an innings as we've ever witnessed in T20 cricket. He's not just doing it against any attack, he's doing it against four guys who bowl 90mph and an absolute gun leg-spinner,' McCullum, himself a pioneering figure in T20 cricket during his playing days, said after the match.
"I'm very realistic that when I see someone come out of the telephone box and play an innings like that, sometimes you throw all the different plans you want at it but if he's hitting it like that, you really can't stop it. We've seen so many players over the years in this format that have been able to do it - Chris Gayle, Aaron Finch, AB de Villiers - and maybe Abhishek Sharma is putting his hand up as one of those players," he added.
Records galore for Abhishek
Abhishek hit seven fours and a whopping 13 sixes in his innings at the Wankhede Stadium. Apart from setting a new highest score for an Indian in the format, Abhishek also broke the record for most sixes hit by a player from the country in a T20I match.
{{/usCountry}}Abhishek hit seven fours and a whopping 13 sixes in his innings at the Wankhede Stadium. Apart from setting a new highest score for an Indian in the format, Abhishek also broke the record for most sixes hit by a player from the country in a T20I match.
{{/usCountry}}The 24-year-old's place in the squad had come under the scanner before the start of the series. While he had scored a century against Zimbabwe in just his second T20I, Abhishek had since managed just one half-century in nine innings after that before the first T20I against England at the Eden Gardens. He started this series by smashing 79 runs in 34 balls in Kolkata which powered India to their dominant seven-wicket win.
After that, though, he recorded scores of 12, 24 and 29 before the century at the Wankhede. “I know that whenever it is my day, I will go for it even if it is just the first ball of the match. Today, luckily, it was my day. So, very grateful,” he said.