Team India batter Abhishek Sharma thanked his captain Suryakumar Yadav and teammates Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel for helping him through his scintillating century in the final T20I against England in Mumbai. Playing in only his 17th T20I for India, he scored his second century in the format as well. Talking about his century after the game, Abhishek revealed Surya and Hardik’s roles in helping him reach the feat.

“I would tell you the truth. When Surya paaji (Suryakumar Yadav) got out, he told me to get the hundred first. He said that these moments do not come often. At that time, Adil Rashid and the pacers were bowling, who I had already scored off. But he told me strictly that these moments will not come often and asked me to take some time to reach the century. After that, Hardik (Pandya) paaji came and said the same thing. He said that ‘you have hit a lot of shots, don’t get adventurous now,” he said [via India Today].
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“Then Axar (Patel) paaji came and said the same thing. The three seniors took me aside and said this and that took me out of the zone, where I just wanted to react to the ball and play my shots. But those three controlled me and it happened,” he again shared.

Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir also called Abhishek Sharma’s century in the fifth T20I against England the best he had seen so far in the T20 format.
Talking to the broadcasters post-game, Gambhir said about Abhishek’s knock [quoted by NDTV]: “We are going to do this going forward, got to play fearless cricket. We want to keep backing players like Abhishek Sharma. We have to be patient to with these boys. Most of these boys believe in the ideology of playing fearless cricket. I haven’t seen a better T20 hundred (Abhishek’s ton) against bowlers who are bowling at 140-150 kph consistently.”