If cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties, then its 20-over variant is even more so. It’s no secret that the shorter the format, the more of a level-playing field it is, which is why ‘upsets’ are more commonplace in T20 cricket than in 50-over games or matches of longer durations.
One of the almost iron-clad certainties, even in the slam-bang version, is that if Abhishek Sharma plays a minimum of 10 deliveries, at least one six, if not more, is guaranteed. So complete is his command over his craft that he has established himself as the most valuable property in this format, wreaking such unimaginable havoc that oftentimes, opposition bowlers desperately wish for the earth to open up and gobble them up.
Tuesday at Wellington’s Hnry Stadium is the latest instance of the left-hander from Punjab snatching the game away from the opposition in the small matter of a half-hour. Trailing 0-2 in the five-match and perhaps aware that they had left at least 25 runs back in the changing room, New Zealand targeted early success to keep themselves in the hunt after posting 198. As it turned out, with no little help from the precocious, precious Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek made it decidedly a no-contest, raining fours and sixes with such stunning regularity that Mitchell Santner and his charges had nowhere to hide.
The vicissitudes of sport
No one has experienced the vicissitudes of sport, and specifically the T20 game, more than Abhishek — perhaps with the exception of his regular opening partner, Sanju Samson. He began 2026 in a blaze of glory with two half-centuries against the Kiwis at home, but each of those was succeeded by a first-ball blob. Then came the cruellest of cuts as India began their hunt to defend the T20 World Cup crown worn in Bridgetown in June 2024.
Sanju Samson.
| Photo Credit:
CREIMAS/BCCI
Abhishek was expected to set the tone for India’s dominance, but he made the most wretched of starts to his World Cup career. In the opener against United States in Mumbai, he was dismissed off the first ball of the contest, caught at deep cover. It was an unfortunate dismissal in the sense that he picked out the admittedly strategically placed fielder with unerring accuracy as he opened his shoulders and creamed a full, wide ball from paceman Ali Khan, looking to make his trademark opening statement with a signature six.
It happens, we all said, especially given the willingness with which Abhishek embraces risk. But it happened again, in his next match against Pakistan in Colombo (he missed the game against Namibia in Delhi after being hospitalised with a stomach infection). And in the fixture that followed, against Netherlands in Ahmedabad. Three ducks on the bounce, the last two also in the first over against off-spinners Salman Agha and Aryan Dutt respectively, suggested a pattern which compelled India to split their all-left opening combination of Abhishek and Ishan Kishan by bringing Samson into the equation.
Abhishek salvaged a most modest tournament with an authoritative half-century in the final against New Zealand, feeding off the show of confidence from the think-tank which didn’t so much as contemplate leaving him out despite 0, 0, 0 and 15 in his first four hits. His stunning early assault, with the by-now flowing Samson, sparked a first-wicket stand of 98 in a mere 43 deliveries, the foundation from which India closed out a commanding 96-run victory to retain their title in grand style in front of nearly 100,000 unashamedly partisan spectators at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Thriving off his heroics in the final, Abhishek slipped back into his usual destructive mode thereafter, one of the few bright spots when India lost 0-6 to Ireland and England combined in June-July. A trough in Zimbabwe – 11 runs in three innings – was no more than a temporary blip. Upon return home, he smashed 108 off 34 balls against Afghanistan in Delhi, 61 (28b) in the Asian Games final against Pakistan in Nisshin and 69 (30b) against West Indies in Indore.
Frenzied starts
In New Zealand, he had got the team off to much-needed frenzied starts in the first two games, with 29 off 12 and 27 off 21 in stiff run-chases. Which brought us to the Hnry Stadium, where India were confronted with a target of 199 to take an unbeatable 3-0 lead.
For much of Abhishek’s post-World Cup run, his partner in crime was Samson. On and off, the latter made way to accommodate Sooryavanshi, most notably in Zimbabwe where the wicketkeeper from Keralam didn’t even figure in the extended squad after a run of modest scores following his Player-of-the-Tournament heroics in the World Cup.
For long, Samson has been one of the great enigmas of Indian cricket. When he is on song, he bats like a dream, making that vocation look ridiculously easy and straightforward. But then, he also lapses into frustrating inconsistency, which is what opened the door in the first place for Kishan’s reintegration with international cricket. Overlooked for the early part of the World Cup (except in Delhi in Abhishek’s unavailability), Samson was brought back in Chennai to offer a right-handed point of difference at the top of the tree, and responded with successive scores of 24, 97 not out, 89 and 89 (the last three in the knockouts) to become the toast of the nation.
Typically Samson-like, he followed that up with 5, 0 and 1 to make way for Sooryavanshi midway through the England series; chastened, he reeled off 57 and 50 in consecutive knocks against Afghanistan, then embarked on a string of 9, 7, 2 and 11 to ensure that he reprised a pattern that has been his constant companion all his career.
Why then would he not make half-centuries in three of his next five knocks? He wouldn’t be Samson otherwise, would he?
Abhishek’s mostly-off, now-on travails and Samson’s blow-hot blow-cold figures could paint the picture of the lack of substantial starts and early pressure on the incoming No. 3, mostly Kishan, and while there might be some truth to how that picture takes shape, the reality is also starkly surprising. The 26-year-old stylist from Amritsar and the 31-year-old purist from Thiruvananthapuram have been involved in five stands in excess of 50 in the 25 innings in which they have opened together this calendar year, equalling an Indian record held hitherto by K.L. Rahul and Rohit Sharma (in 2021) and by Abhishek himself and his good mate Shubman Gill (in 2025) when the latter made a brief if largely unsuccessful return to 20-over internationals.
Two to tango
Abhishek and Samson complement each other superbly; there is no competition, healthy or otherwise, no subconscious duel of one-upmanship, no trying to outdo each other. Both are comfortable in their respective skins, instinctively holding back when they sense that their partner is firing on all cylinders, and quickly taking over the lead role if the other is a little off-key. It helps that one is a left-hander and the other bats right-handed, because it then becomes practically impossible for the bowling group to line a particular type of batter up.
They target different areas of the ground – Abhishek’s on-side play has come on by leaps and bounds and his pick-up shot is a joy to behold even if it can sometimes be his kryptonite too – and hit different strokes to balls of the same length, driving the opposition ragged with their dominance, their chutzpah and their fearlessness, for which loads of credit must also be placed at the doorstep of successive leadership groups.
On Tuesday, Samson was pushed down to No. 3 so that Sooryavanshi, the boy wonder, could return to his preferred opening slot. In Christchurch on Saturday when Kishan was unavailable with an adductor injury, the lad from Bihar had batted at No. 3 and evidently struggled, piecing together an unconvincing four off eight deliveries. That was understandable, considering it was his first competitive outing for three weeks, since the Asian Games final on October 3.
Orchestrating the swap
Quickly realising that Samson’s greater experience could allow them to split up the successful opening combination by slotting him at one-drop and thrusting Sooryavanshi to his comfort zone, Shreyas Iyer and Gautam Gambhir orchestrated the swap that resulted in the highest ever PowerPlay score (118) in T20I history.
Sooryavanshi hammered four fours and as many sixes in a 19-ball 45, almost holding his own as his senior partner, Abhishek, tore into the bowling. That being said, it was Sooryavanshi who fired the first shots across the bows, hammering the first ball of the chase, from Jacob Duffy, over mid-on for four and clattering the third legal delivery of the innings over and behind point for a towering six. New Zealand ran into a revolving door; they were battered for 50 in just 2.2 overs, the fastest team fifty in all T20Is.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
| Photo Credit:
CREIMAS/BCCI
Abhishek brought up his half-century in 15 deliveries, and took another 20 balls for his second fifty. His 11th century meant he left the great Virat Kohli behind and became the Indian with the most 20-over hundreds; it was also his fourth T20I ton, a monumental accomplishment considering he has played just 69 innings.
Just to put things in perspective, Rohit Sharma (who holds the record for the most T20I hundreds alongside Glenn Maxwell), finished with five centuries from 151 hits, while Suryakumar Yadav, with whom Abhishek drew abreast, batted 107 times though that is offset by the fact that he didn’t always occupy the top three slots. In all T20s, only Chris Gayle (22) and Babar Azam (13) have more three-figure knocks than the rangy left-hander. With time, opportunity and ambition on his side, Abhishek won’t be playing second fiddle to many of these worthies for a long time.
India are blessed to have four equally aggressive and proven options to pick from to open the batting should it come to that. Abhishek, Samson, Sooryavanshi and Kishan are each more than a handful on his own; throw three, or even all four (like at the Asian Games) in the mix, and you can’t help but feel for the already beleaguered bowling community. As a popular catchline for a television brand goes: Neighbour’s Envy, Owner’s Pride.
