I always believe in my hitting ability: Abhishek Sharma – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Young batter Abhishek Sharma expressed his confidence in his batting skills after scoring a century off just 47 balls against Zimbabwe in the 2nd T20I, despite failing to score in his international debut the previous day.

His impressive performance propelled India to a total of 234 for 2. The Indian team then proceeded to dismiss the home side for a mere 134 runs in 18.4 overs, securing a resounding 100-run victory in Harare on Sunday.

The win allowed India to level the five-match series at 1-1, having suffered a narrow 13-run defeat in the opening encounter.

“I feel like if it’s your day, you express yourself. After the drop, I thought it was my day and had to take responsibility,” Abhishek said, as quoted by PTI, at the post-match presentation.

“Rutu helped me in keeping perspective. I always believe in my (hitting) ability. It’s about momentum for me. If it’s in the arc, I believe I need to hit it over regardless of when it is,” he added.

Abhishek praised his team’s resilience and their capability to quickly recover from a recent disappointment.

“It was a good performance after the defeat yesterday. We didn’t have much time to lament. I felt that T20 is all about the momentum, and thought it was my day today. Special thanks to the coaches and captain for keeping confidence (in me),” said Abhishek, who was named the player of the match.

After a challenging period, Indian captain Shubman Gill expressed his satisfaction with the team’s return to form. He commended the impressive partnership between Abhishek and Ruturaj Gaikwad, which played a crucial role in the team’s success.

“It was not easy to bat in powerplay. Abhi and Rutu built innings brilliantly. Hopefully, the batters continue to fire in the games coming up,” Gill said.

“Yesterday was more about us not being able to handle pressure. Ours is a young side. Actually, it was good to have pressure in the first game and we knew what to expect today.”

Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza acknowledged the inevitable reality that the reigning world champions will ultimately showcase their true potential and perform at a level befitting their title.

“I thought our fielding was bad, dropping four chances hurt us. I expected 200 on that wicket and it’d get better in the second innings. They got 20 extra. I thought it’d be a close game coming into the chase, but wasn’t to be,” he said.

Raza hoped to see more runs from his top-order batters.

“Our top order is not firing. Blessing (Muzarabani) has come leaps and bounce, he’s very hungry. As long as he stays fit, he’ll bowl well.

“We’ve talked about batting for a while. It’s easier to fix when there is a pattern. We came out firing today, lot of the issues came down to inexperience,” he added.