Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh wondered if it is still not too late to add Abhishek Sharma, at least to the travelling reserves of India’s T20 World Cup 2024 squad after the SunRisers opener played one of his most destructive knocks in IPL 2024. Abhishek smashed 75 off just 28 balls and stitched a 167-run stand with Travis Head, who hit 89 off just 30 balls as SRH made a mockery of a 166-run chase against LSG in Hyderabad on Wednesday, May 8.
Harbhajan Singh echoed the emotions of millions of cricket fans as he was not able to believe what he saw in the IPL 2024 match. SRH chased down 166 in just 9.4 overs with Abhishek and Head hitting 14 sixes and 16 boundaries between them. On a pitch where LSG’s top batters, including captain KL Rahul, struggled to get going fluently, SRH went on a six-hitting spree.
“What just happened in Hyderabad! Travishead & IamAbhiSharma4 hitting sixes like taking singles. Chased 165 in 9.4 overs. Should Team India include Abhishek in the bench strength?” Harbhajan asked in a social media post on Wednesday.
While Travis Head raced to the 3rd spot in the Orange Cap standings in IPL 2024 after taking his tally to 533 runs in 11 matches, Abhishek took his tally to 401 runs with two fifty-plus scores. Both Head and Abhishek have scored at a strike rate of over 200 in the ongoing season, forming one of the most destructive opening pairs in the history of the tournament.
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MOST SIXES IN IPL 2024: ABHISHEK SHARMA
It is no surprise that Abhishek Sharma is the leading six-hitter in IPL 2024 — 35 in 11 matches, 3 more than Sunil Narine, who is at the second spot and 4 more than 3rd-placed Travis Head.
Abhishek’s breakout IPL season was not enough to hand him a spot in India’s T20 World Cup squad. While Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Yashasvi Jaiswal were picked as the top-order players in the 15-man squad, Shubman Gill and Rinku Singh were the two batters in the 4-man travelling reserves.
However, puntits and former cricketers feel that Abhishek Sharma will soon be part of the Indian T20I set-up, probably after the T20 World Cup in June.
India’s T20 World Cup Squad
Rohit Sharma (c), Yashashvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav. Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal. Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
Reserves: Shubman Gill, Rimku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan. (Note: Teams have the option of changing their squad without informing the ICC Technical Committee until May 23).