'Special Thanks to Shubman Jisne Mujhe...': Abhishek Sharma Reveals Why he Borrows Bat From Captain Gill

Having lit up IPL 2024, Abhishek Sharma carried his blistering form into international cricket with a maiden T20I ton in the second T20I between India and Zimbabwe on Saturday. Abhishek though started his India career with a four-ball duck in the series opener but quickly moved on to hit the third-quickest T20I century by an Indian.

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However, Abhishek had to convince his captain and friend Shubman Gill for a favour something he has been doing since age-group cricket.

The 23-year-old revealed that whenever he’s under pressure, he borrows Gill’s bat.

“Ye Under-14 say chal raha hai. Jub bhi mai uske bat say khela hoon, acha he hua hai. Aaj bhi I played with his bat only jo ki badi mushkil say mila hai mujhe. Wo deta bhi nahi easily. That is like my last option jub I mujhe lagta hai ki comeback ke liye uske bat say khelna padega. Toh special thanks to Shubman jisne mujhe apna bat de diya aur time par de diya. (This has been going on since Under-14 cricket. Whenever I have played with his bat, I’ve done well. I want to tell everyone that even today, I played with his bat which wasn’t an easy task. It’s my last option for a comeback. Special thanks to him for lending me his bat on time),” Abhishek said in a video shared by BCCI.

“It had happened in the IPL as well. Today was no exception as it went well as it usually happens,” he  said during a media interaction.

Abhishek has repeatedly spoken about the contribution of legendary Yuvraj Singh on his career. And Sunday was no different.

“Yuvi paaji (Yuvraj Singh) has made a big contribution. I don’t consider myself as sixer-king or something like that. Special thanks to my dad for allowing me to play lofted shots,” he said.

“Generally, coaches don’t allow a young batter to hit lofted shots. But my dad always said if you wanted to play a lofted shot then it should go out of the ground. So, I wanted to follow that,” he added.

Abhishek says IPL has helped him in dealing with pressure situations.

“I think the IPL plays a big role in this (handling pressure). We did not feel much pressure when we came here to represent the country as debutants. Unfortunately, we didn’t start well in the first match. But my mindset and approach were pretty much similar – to show the right intent,” he said.