NEWS
Follow UsThe IPL 2024 has been witness to some of the finest batting displays ever shown in a tournament and the Sunrisers duo of Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head have taken the mantle forward. They have been devastatingly good in the powerplay overs, and the primary reason why their team have secured five wins from seven games to sit at the second position on the table.
While Head applauded Abhishek Sharma for his impact and called him one of the brightest youngsters in the country, the latter has found solace in batting and chatting with his all-format favorite batter.
"We've been talking a lot off the field,” Sharma said in the post-match press conference. “It's joyful to watch him bat. Our chats are helping. He's someone I'm looking forward to batting with for the rest of the season. All the Punjab boys know I admire Travis for the way he bats in all three formats. Luckily we got him here.
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With 485 runs at an average of 48.50 and a scarcely believable strike rate of 192.46, Abhishek Sharma had taken the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2023-24 by storm and was the second-highest run-scorer after Riyan Parag. He has carried that form to the IPL, where has has already amassed 257 runs at an average of 36.71 and a strike rate of 215.97.
"I'm very clear about my mindset and goal. I had a very clear plan in my mind before the IPL. I was clear about my batting style and performance and how I was going to do it. I'm executing well, all the hard work in Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s is really helping me a lot.
"The message was pretty easy from the coaches and the captain: go and express yourself. It was a very simple and powerful message coming from the coach and the captain because if you see, as a youngster and a top-order batter, you just have to get that confidence from your captain and coach and I think we got it from day one. Rest it's our job to go there and play our game," Abhishek said.
One of the striking features of Sharma’s batting this season has been the way he has played spinners - against whom he managed 120 runs off just 50 balls while being dismissed only twice. His takedown of Kuldeep Yadav, against whom he scored 25 runs off just six balls on April 20 (Saturday), was the stuff of madness.
"Personally, I try and plan really well for the spinners as they're the main bowlers for teams. In this match also, I was very careful for Kuldeep. He's their main bowler. I watched his videos, and I tried to play similar bowlers a day prior; it could be any net bowler or local bowler, but I try to make sure they're similar to the bowlers we're going to face. That helps me a lot,” the Punjab batter said.
