Abhishek Sharma is relatable to Virender Sehwag, says star India cricketer

World No. 1 T20I batter Abhishek Sharma has been appointed vice-captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad for start of IPL 2026 season in the absence of regular skipper Pat Cummins.

IPL 2026: Sunrisers Hyderabad opener Abhishek Sharma has been handed a big responsibility in the absence of regular skipper Pat Cummins. The world No. 1 T20I batter has been appointed the vice-captain of the SRH team for the upcoming IPL 2026 seasons with Ishan Kishan taking over the captaincy in the absence of Cummins.

Abhishek Sharma had a modest time in the T20 World Cup 2026 but ended it on a high with a blazing 18-ball fifty in the final against New Zealand which India went on to win. The 25-year-old Punjab opener has been retained by Kavya Maran’s SRH for Rs 12 crore ahead of the IPL 2026 season.

Former India captain and head coach Anil Kumble sees traits of Virender Sehwag in Abhishek Sharma and his dashing strokeplay. “I would relate him to someone like Virender Sehwag, because he would look to smash every ball. When he moved from Test cricket to one-day cricket and then to T20 cricket, he realised that he had to pace his innings slightly differently. But Virender Sehwag would still go at a 140–150 strike-rate. So, that’s something Abhishek Sharma needs to start thinking about, saying, ‘I’ve been scoring at 200 strike-rate, expectations are on me, should I now go at a strike rate of 300?’,” Kumble said on JioStar’s ‘IPL Today Live’ show.

“No, you just have to be normal. You have to play a number of balls. If Abhishek Sharma bats 20 balls in an innings, we know he will be close to that 50 mark. We saw that with Sanju Samson, not getting out in the 40s or 50s, but making it count by going deeper, getting to that 85-90 mark. That’s what you need in the T20 format. Maybe that’s the kind of maturity you will see in Abhishek Sharma this season, which SRH will be hoping for,” Kumble said about Abhishek Sharma.

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Abhishek has scored 1816 runs in 77 IPL matches so far with 1 hundred and 9 fifties to his name with a strike-rate of 163.01. In the IPL 2025 season, Abhishek scored 439 runs in 14 matches at a strike-rate of 193.39 with 1 hundred and 2 fifties although SRH failed to reach the Playoffs and finished in sixth place.

Sehwag in comparison turned out in 104 matches in IPL, scoring 2728 runs with a strike-rate of 155.04 with 2 hundreds and 16 fifties in his career.

Abhishek Sharma needs to overcome mental challenges: AB de Villiers

South Africa and Royal Challengers Bengaluru legendary batter AB de Villiers believes that Abhishek Sharma needs to over ‘mental challenges’ in his 9th IPL season. “He’s 25, not 20 anymore. So, this is definitely the phase where he has to start taking more responsibility. There will be media pressure and people asking him to become more consistent. We know he was a little inconsistent during the T20 World Cup, which was disappointing. He had a good finish in the final, but otherwise, it was a quiet tournament for him. He was erratic at times,” De Villiers told JioStar.

“He had an unbelievable IPL 2025, scoring close to a 200 strike-rate and averaging in the 30s, which is good for an opening batter scoring over 400 runs in the tournament, but it could have been better. Once again, that word consistency comes to mind. It’s a personal challenge he will have to overcome mentally. Being the number one international T20I batter in the world comes with expectation, and that is the most dangerous word in cricket, when you feel like the whole world is closing in on you, and it’s up to him to fight those mental battles throughout this coming season,” De Villiers added about Abhishek Sharma.

The former RCB batter scored 5162 runs in 184 IPL matches with 3 hundreds and 40 fifties at a strike-rate of 151.68. Sunrisers Hyderabad will play the opening match of the IPL 2026 season against defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on March 28.

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The Times Of Bengal