Abhishek Did It With Dube’s Bat
A string of poor scores got his detractors to question his place in the XI even as the team's think tank stuck to their guns and believed in his firepower
Ahmedabad: Rise, fall and rise again, to greater heights. Ask Abhishek Sharma, who has experienced all of this at the just concluded T20 World Cup.
The Indian opener was breathing fire in the build-up to the big event but suffered a sudden slump when the World Cup ball got rolling. Someone who had terrorised bowlers with some brutal hitting was found struggling for runs. A string of poor scores got his detractors to question his place in the XI even as the team's think tank stuck to their guns and believed in his firepower.
The left-hander’s tournament started with three ducks — against USA, Pakistan and The Netherlands — before a lowly 15 against South Africa in a losing cause greatly damaged India’s chances of making the semifinals. He then regained touch with a 55 against Zimbabwe before going off-colour again with a 10 and 9 against West Indies (last Super Eight game) and England in the semifinal.
Captain Suryakumar Yadav and coach Gautam Gambhir persisted with the left-hander, who got it right in the final by smashing 52 off just 21 balls to deflate the Kiwis upfront and almost kill the game.
The 25-year-old revealed his weapon behind the destruction. “It was Shivam Dube’s bat,” he told reporters after the game.
“Thank you Dube,” Abhishek added before praising his teammate for his brilliance with the bat and ball.
Abhishek also said that the atmosphere was such that even while not getting runs, he did not feel down. “The whole team is like a combined family that helps each other in tough times. I feel company matters a lot. When I was not able to contribute, everyone was thinking so much about me and did not doubt my ability. That was so much motivation,” he said.