On Sunday, September 21, Abhishek Sharma was the centre of attention during India’s Super Fours match against Pakistan as part of the ongoing Asia Cup 2025. Abhishek played at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium and was instrumental in India’s pursuit of Player of the Match. However, the batting all-rounder gained headlines for his verbal confrontation with Pakistan’s Haris Rauf and Shaheen Afridi.
Abhishek began the chase aggressively, hitting Shaheen for six on the first ball.
Later, Shaheen shot a few remarks at him, to which the Punjabi-born answered as he pleased. Later, Shubman Gill, his opening partner, chastised Shaheen for concentrating on sledging rather than bowling. Things became extremely heated after the same incident happened between the Indian duo and Haris Rauf during the final over of the power play. Abhishek believed that such an altercation might have been avoided, but he had no alternative but to react.
“Personally, I did not like because on every ball, their bowlers were trying to poke at me, launching some personal attacks on me and Shubman [Gill]. So I felt that it was necessary for me to respond to them in my style. Because, this is not how cricket should be played, in my opinion. I was constantly having a word with Shubman that give them a befitting reply after winning the match tonight,” Abhishek told Sony Sports Network in a post-match chat.
Speaking of Abhishek’s batting, the 25-year-old was responsible for the bulk of the scoring as India won the match by six wickets. Batting aggressively, the Southpaw smashed 74 runs off just 39 deliveries. His stunning knock was studded with six fours and five humongous sixes into the crowd. In an attempt to keep up with the ante, Abhishek departed in the thirteenth over, but by then, the game was certainly in India’s favour as less than 50 runs were required.
With the blistering knock, Abhishek is also the highest run-getter of the season so far, with 173 runs from four innings at a thunderous strike rate of 208.43. However, his latest knock was his first half-century of the marquee event, and he would be hoping to continue the momentum for the upcoming game against Sri Lanka as well, which will be played in Dubai on Thursday.
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