Follow UsAbhishek Sharma is the talk of the town following his stellar 135 against England in the fifth T20I at the Wankhede Stadium. While his place in the shortest format is a fix, former Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh feels that India should blood the left-hander into the red-ball setup sooner or later.
Harbhajan believes the 24-year-old is the perfect Virender Sehwag prototype and will take the opposition's game away in a session or two.
“On his day, he just takes the game away. Travis Head does it, Virender Sehwag used to do it, Viv Richards used to do it. These kind of players are the ones who take the game forward. Today or tomorrow, his chance will come in Test cricket. You always need a player of the Sehwag mould in Test cricket who comes, smashes, and takes the game away. That can be Abhishek Sharma,” Harbhajan said on his YouTube channel.
Not just that, the off-spinner also insisted that India’s future top three in the most extended format will be Abhishek, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill. The left-handed opener has enough experience at the first-class level, with 24 appearances for Punjab, where he averages 30.60 at a strike rate of 70.46.
"I am really looking forward to that period when they will be India's top 3 [Gill, Jaiswal and Abhishek]. What a batting lineup that will be and those days are not too far away. Maybe in about six months, we will see these three playing permanently for India in white-ball cricket," said Harbhajan.
The off-spinner, however, was left disappointed with Abhishek not ‘concentrating’ on his bowling more. The 24-year-old picked up 2/3 with the ball in the last clash, showing his worth as a left-arm spinner.
“I would like to see him bowl more,” said Harbhajan on his YouTube channel. “Right from the beginning, I have been telling him that his seam position is very good. He doesn't work as hard on bowling as he does on batting. Even today, whenever I meet him, I tell him about his bowling because batting is his first love, and he will definitely work on that. He can work on his bowling, he has all the qualities required to be a good leg spinner,” said Harbhajan.