Abhishek Sharma India A ODI Pti (1)Image Credit source: PTI
There has been a debate for some time regarding the place of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in Indian cricket. Especially questions remain over the future of former captain and veteran opener Rohit, who has turned 38 years old. In such a situation, looking at the times to come, many young batsmen have a chance to stake their claim for the opening spot. The first successor to Rohit’s place is Yashasvi Jaiswal, but in recent times, the name of Abhishek Sharma is also doing the rounds. But this young opener has missed a big opportunity to strengthen his claim.
Abhishek Sharma has cemented his place in the Indian team with his explosive batting in T20 International. He will be the biggest batting weapon of the Indian team in the upcoming T20 World Cup. Looking at his recent performance, the selectors and team management seem to be preparing him for the ODI format as well, so that in case of Rohit Sharma’s retirement or drop, at least 3 batsmen are ready for the opening position.
Abhishek’s performance was like this in the ODI series
But in this attempt, Abhishek Sharma lost the first big opportunity that came in his hands. Abhishek was selected for the 3 ODI match series played between India A and South Africa A. Abhishek had a chance to prove by scoring big scores that he can play big innings even in the 50 over format. But he failed to do so in all these three matches.
According to his T20 style, Abhishek started fast all three times but despite looking in good rhythm, he lost wickets due to playing in the same manner and could not score a half-century even once. Overall, his scores in this series were – 31, 32, 11. Overall, Abhishek scored only 74 runs in 3 innings at an average of 24.
Will it be difficult to play ODI in T20 style?
Abhishek once again won the strike rate race, which was 134, but playing long innings is more important in the ODI format. In the third match, he had a chance to show that he can play fast and stay at the crease for a long time because Team India was chasing a big target of 326 runs but he was out after scoring 11 runs in just 8 balls. However, his performance is not very surprising. In 65 innings of List A cricket (ODI), Abhishek has scored only 2110 runs at an average of 34. Now if this situation continues further then he will not be able to easily make a place in Team India in ODI format.