Under-Pressure Trump Card: Why Abhishek Sharma Is Trending Ahead of T20 World Cup

Explosive India opener Abhishek Sharma is trending across India as his recent domestic struggles collide with soaring expectations that he will be a key figure in India’s T20 World Cup campaign.

The 25-year-old left-hander, who has quickly built a reputation as one of India’s most dangerous T20 batters, is currently captaining Punjab in the Vijay Hazare Trophy but has endured a lean run with the bat in the tournament.

In Punjab’s latest Vijay Hazare fixture against Mumbai in Jaipur, Abhishek managed only 8 runs off 10 balls before falling to Sairaj Patil, extending a poor run of form in this season’s one-day competition.[1][2]

Across his first three matches of the current Vijay Hazare campaign, Abhishek has scored just 86 runs, with no half-centuries, raising concerns about his touch in the 50-over format so close to a major global T20 event.[1]

Compounding the scrutiny, the same game also produced a dramatic moment with the ball: Mumbai’s Sarfaraz Khan smashed 30 runs in a single over off Abhishek, racing to the fastest half-century in Vijay Hazare Trophy history, reaching fifty in only 15 balls.[5]

Despite that onslaught, Punjab edged Mumbai by just one run and finished on top of Group C, but Abhishek’s personal outing with both bat and ball has intensified debate about his current form.[5]

Abhishek’s overall List A record, however, underlines why he remains a valued white-ball prospect. Before the latest game against Mumbai, he had scored over 2100 List A runs in 68 matches at an average in the mid-30s, with 4 centuries and 8 fifties, striking at around a run a ball.[1][2]

Former India star Yuvraj Singh, who has mentored Abhishek since his early years, has publicly acknowledged both the left-hander’s talent and his inconsistency. Yuvraj revealed that he put Abhishek through a four-year process focused on playing for India rather than just excelling in the IPL, a plan that culminated in Abhishek’s India debut roughly four years and three months later.[2]

Yuvraj has also said he has had “a lot of arguments” with Abhishek about valuing his wicket, pointing out a trend among modern batters of attacking freely without putting enough price on their dismissal.[1][2]

That mentoring appears to have paid off most strikingly in T20 internationals. Since his debut in 2024, Abhishek has put up exceptional T20I numbers: over 1100 runs in 33 games at an average close to 36 and a blistering strike rate near 190, including two centuries and six fifties, with a highest score of 135.[4]

He is also credited as being the fastest player to 1000 T20I runs in terms of balls faced, reaching the milestone in just 528 deliveries, underscoring the ultra-aggressive style that has made him central to India’s T20 approach.[4]

Abhishek’s impact was most visible during the 2025 Asia Cup, where his attacking starts were widely viewed as a key factor in India’s title win.[4] That tournament elevated him from promising talent to a proven match-winner in high-pressure conditions.

With the T20 World Cup around the corner, Abhishek is widely described as India’s “trump card” in the shortest format, especially in the powerplay overs where his boundary-hitting can decide games early.[4]

His importance has only grown after selection calls such as the omission of Shubman Gill from the current T20 setup, which place greater responsibility on Abhishek to deliver explosive starts at the top of the order.[4]

Despite his T20 success, Abhishek has yet to make his ODI debut for India, and with the current core of one-day players likely to continue towards the 2027 ODI World Cup, his chance in the 50-over international format may still be some distance away.[2]

That gap between formats partly explains why his domestic List A performances, including the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy, are under such close scrutiny: selectors and fans view these games as a measure of his readiness to eventually step up in ODIs while maintaining his T20 excellence.[1][2]

Online interest around “Abhishek Sharma” has surged as fans react to his contrasting fortunes: a proven match-winner in T20Is and Asia Cup hero on one side, and a captain battling for runs and being taken apart in a single over in domestic one-day cricket on the other.[3][5]

For now, Abhishek remains one of India’s most closely watched cricketers: a high-risk, high-reward opener whose current slump in Vijay Hazare is being weighed against his extraordinary T20 record and the strong backing of a mentor like Yuvraj Singh as India build towards another global tournament.[1][2][4]