Former Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin has jumped to the defence of Abhishek Sharma and has claimed that the star isn’t a slogger like how ex-Pakistan star Mohammad Amir had referred to him earlier. The India opener had registered three consecutive ducks in the T20 World Cup 2026 before he managed to score 55 runs in the Super 8 tie against ZIM. Ashwin claimed that Abhishek wasn’t just a slogger and that he probably had a better bat swing than the legendary Yuvraj Singh.
Abhishek better than Yuvraj Singh?
“There is a video of Mohammad Amir doing the rounds, where he called Abhishek Sharma a slogger. I just want to make one thing clear: you can say anything about his game, but he is not a slogger. He has one of the most enviable bat swings in the game today. We all know Yuvraj Singh is his mentor. He has probably got a better bat swing than him as well. You cannot get a better bat swing than that. Whenever Abhishek strikes the ball, it goes very far. So people can mistake him for being a slogger. The one thing Abhishek has been guilty of is showing intent on every ball,” Ashwin said.
Abhishek got off the mark with a single, something he hadn’t been able to do in the first 3 innings. A poor third over of the innings by Tinotenda Maposa allowed him to swing hard. And he connected. In a jiffy, Abhishek was 16 (6). He still didn’t look at his best but managed to pick the bones out of the slower balls, which the South African bowlers used well to restrain him, from the Zimbabwean bowlers.
By the end of the powerplay, Abhishek had raced to 33 (13). But Sikandar Raza and Brian Bennett put the brakes on the run rate. In the next 9 balls, he scored just 8 runs. In the 11th over, Abhishek reached his half-century, from 26 balls. It wasn’t his best yet, but certainly one that meant the most for him and India.
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