File photo of Abhishek Sharma.© BCCI
Abhishek Sharma will aim to reassert his authority as a T20 batter when he plays for SunRisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League 2026. The tournament begins on March 28 with a match between SRH and defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru. The southpaw fared well in the last IPL season and followed it with an even better performance for India in T20Is, but the T20 World Cup 2026 saw the batter face a tough test. He had an inconsistent tournament.
Abhishek started it with three consecutive ducks before scoring two fifties. The player could manage only 141 runs across eight innings.
As Abhishek gears up for IPL 2026, South Africa legend AB de Villiers has shared a piece of advice for the Indian star.
“Don’t suffocate because of the pressure. Instead, embrace it and love it. Go back to the nets and be that child again, who loves the game and has passion for it, to figure out new things about yourself. If he has that kind of mindset, he is going to be just fine,” de Villiers told Star Sports.
The South Africa great gave the reference of Virat Kohli to guide Abhishek. “When you are feeling the pressure externally, you just have to keep working on your own game. That’s one of the things I saw in Virat in all those years. He would constantly analyse his own game, and that’s where Abhishek is at now,” he said.
Despite a below-par show in the T20 World Cup 2026, Abhishek managed to retain his top spot in the ICC T20I batting rankings. As per the list on March 19, the southpaw was at the helm of affairs with 875 points. He had a four-point gap with second-placed Ishan Kishan.
In the last IPL season, Abhishek scored 439 runs at an average of 33.77 and an impressive strike rate of 193.39, his second-best in an edition. He scored one century and two fifties.