Sanjay Manjrekar defends Abhishek Sharma ahead of 2025 IND vs ENG T20I series, says team should persist with him

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar has backed Abhishek Sharma despite left-hander’s inconsistent performances as an opener in T20Is ahead of the five-match series against England. Sharma scored a blistering century against Zimbabwe in his second game but barring that, he hasn’t scored runs consistently.

The left-hander has scored 256 runs in 12 matches at an average of 23.27 and a strike rate of 171.81, with the help of one century and one fifty. The southpaw plays a high-risk game and he is always flirting with danger to score quick runs for the team.

Meanwhile, Abhishek scored 484 runs in 16 matches in IPL 2024 for Sunrisers Hyderabad at an average of 32.27 and a blistering strike rate of 204.21, which was the best for top 20 run-getters of the tournament. Thus, he played an instrumental role in taking the Orange Army to the final of the lucrative tournament and earned his maiden call-up in the Indian squad.

Sanjay Manjrekar said on ESPN Cricinfo, “I’ve watched Abhishek Sharma, some serious talent there. He’s not one of your part-time bowlers. He’s actually a pretty good left-arm spinner as well. So, when you have conditions like you [India] had in the US and West Indies where you always needed the help of an additional slow bowler. Abhishek Sharma can be a man when two right-handers are batting and he’s in the team for his batting.”

Manjrekar added, “I do believe that there’s some serious talent that there’s low scores the kind of cricket that he plays… but he got a 100 and a 50 a strike rate of 200, I guess, against a pretty decent attack in South Africa. So, if the team management believes that he’s somebody they can make him a big star at the top of the order, you just got to persist with him because there’ll be constant competition and threats for a place to be taken by somebody like Yashasvi Jaiswal.

“So, it’s really up to the team management to think that Yashasvi is their mainstay in Test cricket and if they believe Abhishek Sharma is somebody that can be a future and T20 cricket is where you need a little bit of a longer rope,” he added.

On the other hand, Mohammed Shami is all set to return to action after a long hiatus and Manjrekar said it won’t be easy for the veteran pacer to hit the ground running.

“There won’t be some easy boys for Mohammed Shami, his comeback is not gonna be easy. I hope he is more than 120 percent fit. When he comes in to bowl, those English batters will be going into him straightaway. There won’t be looking at Shami’s stature as a bowler. It’s a very dangerous batting side with the kind of brand of cricket that they play.”

India and England will take on each other in the opening T20I at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Wednesday.