Abhishek Sharma had a horrid campaign in the T20 World Cup 2026 until he played a brilliant knock in the finals. With the IPL starting in few days time his franchise, Sunrisers Hyderabad would expect him to have a blazing season.
Former South Africa skipper AB de Villiers wants Abhishek to take more responsibility and become more consistent.
“He’s 25, not 20 anymore. So, this is definitely the phase where he has to start taking more responsibility. There will be media pressure and people asking him to become more consistent. We know he was a little inconsistent during the T20 World Cup, which was disappointing. He had a good finish in the final, but otherwise, it was a quiet tournament for him. He was erratic at times,” said de Villiers on JioStar
Abhishek took the last two seasons of the IPL by storm with his attacking strokeplay. Turning up for SRH he amassed more than 400 runs in the last two editions at an impressive strike rate of around 200. But de Villiers expects more from the world No. 1 T20I batter in the upcoming IPL season.
“Abhishek had an unbelievable IPL 2025, scoring close to a 200 strike rate and averaging in the 30s, which is good for an opening batter scoring over 400 runs in the tournament, but it could have been better. Once again, that word consistency comes to mind. It’s a personal challenge he will have to overcome mentally. Being the number one international T20I batter in the world comes with expectation, and that is the most dangerous word in cricket. When you feel like the whole world is closing in on you, it’s up to him to fight those mental battles throughout the coming season,” de Villiers added.
De Villiers wants Abhishek to understand the match situation and respect different match-ups, also having a game plan against different bowlers.
“The answer to his success, and to the longevity of his career and consistency, lies in his understanding of and respect for different match-ups. A bowler comes on-suppose it’s Bumrah-and the game is on the line. How do you handle that? Do you attack him, or do you respect it and get to the other end? That is where you have to be true to yourself as a batter.
“You have to feel, ‘There’s a threat here. I’m not comfortable. I’m not going to give it away. I’ll give it a couple of minutes and see if something else comes up.’ I think that is the only missing link in his game still. It’s about understanding that sometimes a bowler is going to get it right to you. That’s where he needs to be clever and really believe in his game plan. He will have a blueprint that’s worked for him over the years, and he just has to fine-tune that, believe in it more than ever, and stick to it,” de Villiers explained.
