India opener Abhishek Sharma has been backed by the legendary Ricky Ponting to be a match-winner at the next T20 World Cup. Ponting has described Sharma as a “star” who might even become the tournament’s top run scorer.
Starting on February 7, the 25-year-old will play in his first T20 World Cup.
According to Ponting, Abhishek’s relative lack of international expertise might really work to his advantage and strengthen India in the shortest format.
“He’s a star. I think it’s (lack of experience) a real positive to be honest. He can be the leading run-scorer and potentially the Player of the Tournament. That’s how good I think he is. And if he does, that makes India even harder to beat. If he doesn’t, then they’re as vulnerable as anybody else. So that’s how important I think he is to this (T20) World Cup for India,” PTI quoted Ponting as saying in the latest edition of The ICC Review.
A member of India’s 2018 Under-19 World Cup winning team, Abhishek has scored 1,267 runs at a strike rate of 194.92 in 37 Twenty20 Internationals, including two hundreds and eight fifties.
Ponting, who initially collaborated with Abhishek when serving as the Delhi Capitals’ IPL head coach, remembered seeing his promise at a young age.
“I was his first IPL coach. He debuted with me, I think as a 17-year-old at Delhi and made an immediate impact. I think he hit his first ball for four or six straight back over the bowler’s head with that classical sort of straight bat and held the pose. And you could just see then as a 17-year-old that there was something extra special,” Ponting said.
Convinced of the young player’s long-term potential, Ponting claimed he had even asked the franchise not to let him go.
“We ended up trading him away from Delhi, but I pleaded and pleaded and pleaded and said, please don’t do this. We’ve got to (keep him), there’s an absolute superstar in the making here. And that’s what it’s turned out to be. I’ve got really high hopes for him in this time,” he said.
With 182 runs in five T20I series matches against New Zealand, Abhishek has warmed up for the ICC marquee event.
