Two first-ball ducks; two supersonic half-centuries. Extremes have defined Abhishek Sharma’s series against New Zealand. When the pattern was put forth to batting coach Sitanshu Kotak, he stifled a chuckle and then debunked the public perception of his batting. “He is someone who plays a lot of shots, but his shots don’t seem like slogging,” he explained. “He is playing more on the merit of the ball. I feel it’s very important when you are an aggressive batsman, and you are trying to play maximum shots on the merit of the ball,” he added.
Almost every attacking stroke is essayed with a straight bat, or when he goes horizontal, he goes fully horizontal. He doesn’t swipe across the line or move exaggeratedly in the crease. “He is a clever batsman,” the coach pointed out and revealed an example. “In the second game, he got out playing big on the square leg. So in the third game, when he batted, if you look at the way he approached that innings, he was prepared. He was planning for the bowlers to bowl in those areas, and he was prepared for that,” he said.
The aforementioned incident pertained to the second game in Raipur, where he flicked Jacob Duffy to deep square leg, where the snare was laid for him. In the next game in Guwahati, they tried the same, but he expertly evaded the trap and played them straighter, with less of the wristy flourish.
Kotak revealed that, contrary to the spontaneous hitter image he conveys, a lot of planning goes behind the scenes. “Obviously, it is his plan, what he wants to do when he goes in. But we definitely discuss the plans, like what areas the bowlers are trying to bowl, the pace at which they would bowl and what would be the better shot in the situation,” he said. “It’s not that he just goes and does things (the way he likes). It’s not like that. He is very open to everything,” he said.
On the foothills of the T20 World Cup defence, the biggest positives of the series, batting-wise, were Suryakumar Yadav rediscovering his vaunted touch and Ishan Kishan reviving. The captain’s upturn was a matter of time, Kotak said. “We know what Surya is capable of. He has been, for a long time, T20’s best batsman, number one batsman. So we always knew that he would score runs. A dry spell in this format is understandable,” he said.
Abhishek Sharma of India plays a shot during the 4th T20I match between India and New Zealand at Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam, India, on January 28, 2026.
(CREIMAS for BCCI)
It’s not like he looked utterly bereft. “In some innings, he played really well as well. But in T20, when somebody scores 60, 70, we think he played a good innings. For us, if somebody scored 10 off 25, it may be more important than that 60 from 40 balls. So he obviously had some impactful innings in Australia and other games,” he observed. “But the consistency, like the way he scored runs before, was something we were all waiting for. But again, for a batsman’s life in T20, there will be times when there will be a dry patch. But you still have to go hard, you still have to play for the team, which he has always done.”
Similarly, Kotak said Sanju will be back amongst the runs. “He probably has not scored as many runs as everybody would like, but that’s part of the cricketing career. Sometimes, you have five innings in a row where you score so many runs, and sometimes you have a little rough period. So it’s all up to an individual how to keep his mind strong, and obviously, our job is to keep him in a good frame of mind. He practises, and he works hard. We all know what Sanju is capable of.”
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Ishan likely to play
A niggle derailed Ishan’s comeback. But he is likely to return for the Thiruvananthapuram T20, Kotak revealed. “Very likely, I think he will, as far as I know. The physios are here to watch him, and obviously they will take a call,” he said.
The wicket-keeper batsman’s storming was among the first to hit the nets and took on Jasprit Bumrah and Morne Morkel, the South African bowling with a trimmed run-up, but managing to extract awkward lift off the surface.
Ishan cautiously blocked Bumrah but was more expansive against Morkel, whom he swished over mid-wicket but also top-edged once. “Whenever Ishan has played, he has always done well. So one thing he brings is that, obviously, with Sanju, another opening batsman and wicketkeeper, is flexibility,” he said, with a grin of satisfaction of a batting coach whose charges are in blistering form.
On a seemingly flat deck in Thiruvananthapuram, his band of merry destroyers could put on another gig of runs before the World Cup concert.
