Xtra Time Web Desk: Sunrisers Hyderabad’s young left arm spinner Abhishek Sharma has been a revelation in IPL 2020 season so far. The talented left arm spinner from Amritsar has impressed everyone with his controlled left arm spin as well as his hard hitting with the bat. The 20 year old left arm spinner has been working with his role model Yuvraj Singh in Punjab along with Shubman Gill before turning up for the IPL 2020. Much like the former India great, young Abhishek has the potentiality to match Yuvraj. So far in his 5 matches for SRH, Abhishek has scored 51 runs and also picked 1 wicket in the ongoing IPL season. But one cannot judge him with those statistics as he has impressed everyone with his temperament. His innings (31 off 24 balls) against Chennai Super Kings is being lauded by everyone as he shared a match winning partnership with Priyam Garg.
Abhishek has a history of putting up impressive performances in IPL. On IPL debut for Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) two seasons back, Abhishek hit 46* off 19 against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. The performance did not go unnoticed as Sunrisers Hyderabad included him in the list of three players (from DD) in return for Shikhar Dhawan as a part of the trading window. So far in his IPL career, Abhishek has played 11 matches, scoring only 123 runs. But those runs were scored at an impressive strike rate of 141.37. He has also picked 3 wickets so far.
A hard-hitting lower-order batsman who also bowls fast and accurate left-arm spin, Abhishek first came into the limelight with a century on Under-19 debut for Punjab in the Vinoo Mankad Trophy. He led India to victory in the U-19 Asia Cup in 2016 (was also the second highest wicket-taker in the tournament), before being replaced as captain by Prithvi Shaw months before the 2018 U-19 World Cup, where he remained an integral member of the squad. Last season in the domestic Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he carted a Jharkhand attack that had Varun Aaron and Shahbaz Nadeem for 72 off 44 opening the batting. Six days later he smashed Mumbai’s vaunted bowlers for 47 off 29.
With Sunrisers Hyderabad management showing confidence in young Abhishek (played all the five matches for SRH so far), it is time for the youngster to repay the faith imposed on him with consistent performances. A string of good performances in the IPL 2020 can perhaps lead to something great for the youngster.