T20 World Cup: Distressed Abhishek can take cue from Kohli's last Australia tour

It’s predictable that with India’s first Super Eight contest in the T20 World Cup coming up against a well-balanced South Africa on Sunday, an out-of-sorts Abhishek Sharma will be battling his own demons. While legends of the game have been forthcoming with advice on how to score his first run in this World Cup after three matches (yes, that’s right), the world's no. 1 T20 batter doesn’t have to look beyond a Virat Kohli to find a solution.

Less than four months ago, the master batter and Rohit Sharma made their comebacks to international cricket after more than five months out in the cold, and it started on a disastrous note. It was for the first time in a storied career that Kohli fell to two back-to-back ducks in Perth and Adelaide — and one remembers him saying it was a ‘humbling experience’ after scoring a silken 74 in the third ODI as he stitched a 168-run stand with Sharma to prevent a clean sweep.

It’s not possible to say whether Abhishek is just a hit away from getting back among the runs, now that there is some chatter that the dasher may have to make way for Sanju Samson after his sequence of three ducks in the tournament. Add the two more in the build-up series against the Kiwis to make it five noughts in eight innings in the new year, and one senses that the opposition may have sorted his game out.

At least two Indian greats — Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri — have advised the Punjab opener not to be bogged down by the weight of expectations after a dream run throughout 2025. ‘’The expectations might be weighing just a little too heavily on him. If he had got a flying start in the first game, things might have been different. But now, you can sense that the expectations of being the big guy, the six-hitter, the no. 1 batter in the team, might be weighing heavily on him,’’ Gavaskar said on Star Sports.

Gavaskar advised Sharma to play smart cricket and not live up to pre-meditated expectations. ‘’He has to play smart cricket. He has to get the circulation in his legs. He has to get off the mark. If you are playing for India, you have to get off the mark and everything will fall in place.

‘’The way he is getting out is very predictable. The mindset is such that: I am being seen as somebody who hits at a 200 strike rate, I have to live up to that. You don't have to. It's just natural — when you take a couple of singles, you get a sense of the pitch. He will get a big score once he gets set,’’ Gavaskar said.

This is the first time that Abhishek finds himself in a hole in a brief but exceptional career, and the onus is on him to grit his teeth and plough through before he is in a position to start firing again. It’s his first World Cup, not a bilateral series or Asia Cup, and it’s only natural that video analysts of rivals will be working overtime on a way to contain him — such as bringing on a spinner in the powerplay and cramping him for room to stop those monster sixes between square leg and mid-wicket.   

There was a word of caution from former Pakistan speedster Mohammed Amir, about trying to slog every ball for a six. Speaking on Geo News, Amir compared Abhishek's situation to that of Saim Ayub when he burst onto the scene, and how his off-side game was causing his downfall. Similarly, the former pacer said, Abhishek is trying to slog every delivery and unless he works on it, the Indian opener will be exposed in international cricket.

‘’It is the same for Abhishek. He wants every ball in the slot so he can hit it. But at the highest level or in ODIs, har ball lapete mein nahi le sakte (you cannot slog every ball). Salman Agha and Aryan Dutt got him out in similar fashion. International cricket will expose you.’’