Former India cricketer turned analyst Deep Dasgupta applauded Abhishek Sharma amid the T20I series against New Zealand. However, India leads the five-match series 3-0. Abhishek Sharma has been in great form, scoring big runs. Meanwhile, Deep Dasgupta noted a key aspect that makes Abhishek more consistent than the others.
“He’s got the big shots, obviously. But the last game, he did not play a single dot ball. That does not mean he tried to hit every ball out of the park. He has the other game as well. The fact that he plays Ranji Trophy, his defensive technique, we miss those things in this format sometimes. He got those singles as well. He is not one dimension. His first option is six and four, but if he can’t, he is happy to take the single and get on the other side. From that perspective, he is a very well-rounded batter. That is the reason you will see him being more consistent than other batters who may be bigger hitters than him,” he said on ‘Backstage with Boria’.
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“As a player you can have all the fearlessness but when you dont score in a couple of innings, there would be some criticism on the outside, then how much the team backs you becomes important. You hear people say why don’t you play five balls and all of that. A lot of credit to the management and support staff and captain to give him the freedom that if you think first ball you can do this (hit a six) irrespective of what happened in the last game, go ahead and do this, we will back you. Credit to him for having that mindset and the management for backing that mindset,” he further added.
However, Deep Dasgupta also noted an important change in the approach of star India batter and captain Suryakumar Yadav. He also shared that Suryakumar preferred to play more on the on-side.
“The other important thing that was pleasing was his first three shots when he got that fifty in the second game. His first three shots were through covers. Last few months it seemed to me that he was preferring to play more on the on-side and behind the stumps. Even the South Africa series, most dismissals were when he was trying to play in the on-side. That is a massive change. Suddenly when he starts playing on the off-side, on-side comes naturally to him and then the other shots come out as well. So the key was to not be too biased on the on-side,” he said.
“Last game on air I did mention it. Captain’s form always reflects on his captaincy. Rarely does it happen otherwise. Because of that confidence in his own batting, the calls will be a lot more attacking and fearless and I thought that was visible. To get someone like Bishnoi to bowl, who generally does not bowl in the powerplay, he bowled beautifully. When the skipper is in good form, the environment is very different,” Deep Dasgupta concluded.
