Punjab captain Abhishek Sharma paused about 10 minutes after his net session here on Sunday morning and turned to his teammate Gaurav Chaudhary. He asked a question that revealed his intentions and imagination.
He asked, ‘How is the fielding?’ Abhishek asked this question about imaginary fielders. Off-spinner Choudhary immediately replied, ‘Kept at mid-off to save a run.’
Abhishek Sharma hit 45 sixes
What happened next was predictable but exciting. Abhishek swung the bat in his familiar style and sent the ball out of the field. The world number one T20 batsman practiced for about an hour and during this time did not pay any attention to the defence. He hit at least 45 sixes at the beautiful Anantham Cricket Ground, built on farm land just away from the Jaipur city limits.
It looked like a special batting session where Abhishek just wanted to face the spinners. Facing off-spinners, leg spin and slow left-arm bowling on a pitch where the ball was coming to a halt again and again and if the bowler bowled the ball in the right place, there was a lot of turn. The left-handed batsman asked the groundsmen to use light rollers but the problems did not subside as the balls from the net bowlers were continuously troubling him. Some balls were rising unexpectedly while others were staying dangerously low.
Whenever the length was a little short, Abhishek would face trouble but the way he was using his legs was great to see. After seeing the ball miss play and bounce, he would move forward on the pitch and tap the mark with his bat and then show his mastery. On shorter length balls, he would move forward on the pitch and hit inside-out shots over extra cover against off-spin and googlies.
The ball fell at least five times into the compound of a nearby high-rise residential building. The inside-out shot was repeated so many times that the team’s head coach Sandeep Sharma joked, ‘You only want to hit sixes over extra cover to complete your century.’
Abhishek also bowled
A red fielding net was placed at short extra cover for errant shots. He fell into that trap once but soon adjusted and decided to hit some straight sixes. When the 25-year-old arrived for training about 45 minutes after the rest of the team, he wanted to practice on one of the five central pitches. These were all red clay pitches. However, the pitch of the match had not been decided, so as per BCCI rules, he was not allowed to bat there.
He then bowled left-arm spin for about 40 minutes and talked about batting with head coach and assistant coach Uday Kaul. When the entire team’s session was over, it was time for the captain to wear the pads. He initially decided to face the fast bowlers but a young net bowler was bowling on the line of the fifth stump in a row, due to which Abhishek advised, ‘Brother, you bowl closer to the stumps.’
Abhishek, one of the best T20 batsmen in the world, has prepared himself to attack at all costs, which reflects the collective mindset of the team. Hitting sixes seems natural for him. He got out three to four times during the one-hour net session, defending every time. He always looked in control while showing an aggressive attitude. India will hope to see something similar in the next nine weeks.