Former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori was mighty impressed with Sunrisers Hyderabad's young all-rounder Abhishek Sharma. The left-handed opening batter did what most top batters in the world have often failed to do and that is to hit Rashid Khan out of the attack in a T20 match. Sharma scored more than 50% of his runs against Rashid Khan in an IPL 2022 match against the Gujarat Titans. The left-hander's pyrotechnics reminded Vettori of Chris Gayle and Suresh Raina.
"And it felt like he picked up the length. You talk about the great players and their ability to pick up the length, and as soon as Rashid Khan got slightly full, he latched onto it. I think he hit him for three sixes, and they all were just from the case of extending out his front foot and getting to the pitch of the ball. I think Chris Gayle or Suresh Raina have had similar sort of results against him and not many others, and it was through that style of being able to reach the ball," Vettori said on ESPNcricinfo's 'T20 Time Out.'
Sharma, who scored 65 off 42 balls, hit Rashid for three sixes and boundary in his blistering knock. Vettori credited Sharma's balance at the crease for being able to take advantage of Rashid's overpitched deliveries.
{{/usCountry}}Sharma, who scored 65 off 42 balls, hit Rashid for three sixes and boundary in his blistering knock. Vettori credited Sharma's balance at the crease for being able to take advantage of Rashid's overpitched deliveries.
{{/usCountry}}"But there's more to it than just that slight overpitch, because he has overpitched to other batsmen and they haven't been able to get on to it. I just thought it was how stable he was, and the fact that whenever he missed, Abhishek Sharma was there to capitalise on it, and when he got a little bit short, he punched him over cover, but he also never missed an opportunity to take a single," he said.
The former left-arm spinner also pointed Sharma's familiarity with Rashid as the two were part of the SRH squad till last year.
"You hear batters talk all the time, 'I can't pick that guy and another guy can pick him', and you just don't understand why that's the case, because they're both very similar batters, but their comfort level with facing someone like that [is different]. Whether Abhishek Sharma got it from the nets, the experiences maybe through conversations, maybe Rashid Khan was Abhishek Sharma's confidante, and they exchanged notes, and they got to the point where Abhishek felt comfortable, but it was just a brilliant innings," he said.