Team India opener Abhishek Sharma won his sixth ‘Player of the Match’ award in the first T20I match vs Afghanistan in New Delhi on Sunday.
Published: September 14, 2026, 11:16 AM IST
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Abhishek Sharma en route to scoring 82 against Afghanistan in the 1st T20 at Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday(Photo: IANS)
India vs Afghanistan 2026: Former world No1 T20I batter Abhishek Sharma smashed a blazing 82 off 32 balls with 7 sixes and 7 fours as Shreyas Iyer’s side began a three-match series against ‘hosts’ Afghanistan with a dominant seven-wicket win and more than six overs to spare at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday.
Abhishek’s explosive knock came with a strike-rate of 256.25 and put on a match-winning partnership of 121 runs in just 53 balls with his Sunrisers Hyderabad teammate Ishan Kishan, who notched up 42 in 33 balls with 1 six and 5 foursThe Team India opener set a new T20I world record for India surpassing former India T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav in the process.
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WATCH: Abhishek Sharma goes berserk, smashes 82 as India thrash Afghanistan in first T20I
The Punjab southpaw, who was retained for Rs 14 crore by Kavya Maran’s SRH, notched up his third fifty-plus score at a strike-rate of over 250 for India in his T20I careerMumbai Indians batter Suryakumar Yadav has hit two fifty-plus scores at a strike-rate of 250 in T20I cricket while batters like Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube and Hardik Pandya have only one fifty at strike-rate of over 250.
WATCH Abhishek Sharma score a blazing fifty against Afghanistan in the 1st T20I match HERE…
Abhishek Sharma doing what he does best
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Abhishek Sharma’s fifty came off only 22 balls on Sunday – his 14th fifty in T20I cricketOut of these 14 fifties, 12 have come under 25 ballsNo other batter in history of T20I cricket has achieved this feat with Suryakumar Yadav being 2nd best with 9 fifties in less than 25 balls.
“I mean, of course, once you have decided, because I still remember two years back we decided we want to play in a certain wayWe want to dominate all the teams throughout the whole year before the World Cup and things went pretty well for all the team, and especially for the batsmen as well,” Abhishek Sharma said in the post-match presentation on Sunday.
Abhishek Sharma won his sixth ‘Player of the Match’ award in T20I, equally the record of Ishan Kishan and Kuldeep Yadav in this format for IndiaSuryakumar Yadav holds the Indian record currently with 17 ‘Player of the Match’ awards while former India captain Virat Kohli retired with 16.
“But I think one or two series won’t define our team as a batting unit, because the way we all think as a batting unit, it always makes a team firstSo we always wanted to give that start as openers, especially wickets like this, if you’re chasing 150, 160, and you give an early start as openers, it always makes you on the winning side,” Abhishek added.
Indian captain Shreyas Iyer felt Abhishek Sharma’s batting was simply ‘flawless’ on Sunday“Starting off with Abhishek, I feel that the shots he played, it was flawless, and some of them were exemplaryBut talking about Ishan, yeah, he’s been in great form currently, and the way he’s been portraying himself in the dressing room and also on the ground during practice sessions, he’s very relaxed, calm, and he knows his game at the moment,” Iyer said.
