E-Paper
Sign in
Abhishek Sharma gives unbelievable reaction after knowing Josh Hazlewood won't play from next T20I
Abhishek Sharma praises Josh Hazlewood's exceptional bowling during the second T20I match, noting his surprising ability to challenge even aggressive batters.
Abhishek Sharma has struck fear in the minds of the opposition bowlers with this ultra-aggressive batting style. His ability to rip the bowlers from the beginning of a match and maintain the tempo for a length makes him one of the most dreaded openers in modern T20 cricket.
So, the batter who has been a nightmare to a lot of world-class bowlers already in his short career has expressed his admiration and awe for the artist with the ball from Australia, Josh Hazlewood. Notably, in the second T20I match between Indian and Australia at the MCG, the right-arm pacer bowled a devastating spell and took the game away from India. Hazlewood picked up the wickets of Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadava, and Tilak Varma inside the powerplay in MCG and finished his four-over spell, conceding only 13 runs.
Hazlewood surprised Abhishek Sharma
During the post-match press conference, Abhishek was asked about Hazlewood, to which the left-handed batter expressed his surprise at what he saw from the bowler during the game. Sharma said, “I think as a batter, I was watching him in the ODIs as well. So, somehow, we knew that he was going to give us this much difficulty. And, you know, challenges. So, obviously, the way he bowled today, even I got surprised. I haven’t seen something like this in T20s. And this is something new for me as well. Because I am a batter that wants to dominate. But when I was seeing on the other side, how he was bowling, and even to me as well. Seems like he had a plan, and he was just executing it.”
Notably, Josh Hazlewood has played his last in the ongoing series. He will be leaving the T20 side and going to play first-class games as preparation for the upcoming Ashes. The Indian batter was informed of this during the conference, and he was surprised to know of it. “I didn’t know this. Obviously. I mean, he is good enough to play all the formats, but still, I was enjoying this challenge. Somehow, as a batter, you have to play world-class batters, and that was what I was trying to do,” added Abhishek.
Josh Hazlewood has looked like the only bowler who has kept Abhishek Sharma in check in the series so far. In the two matches, Sharma faced 12 deliveries from the Aussie pacer and scored 17 runs in them at a strike rate of 141.66. The context of this figure is found when you see that Sharma’s career strike rate is over 190. The fact that Hazlewood continuously hits the length even in T20s is something that Sharma has not faced before, and the numbers show that he was still adjusting to this new challenge.
