Abhishek sees it as his personal duty to act like an "elder brother" to ensure the teenage prodigy feels at home.
Ahead of the five-T20I series against the West Indies on home soil, Indian opener Abhishek Sharma explicitly pointed to the team's atmosphere as the key element that helps build a recurring habit of winning.
Sharma, who played a key role in India’s recent Asian Games gold-medal-winning campaign, believes that if the dressing room environment is built such that every single player wants to perform for one another, dominate the opposition, and collectively drive the team to victory, winning naturally transitions from a one-time achievement into a regular habit.
The southpaw emphasized that while winning a major tournament once is relatively easy, maintaining the same rigorous processes and hungry collective mindset over and over again is difficult without that supportive, team-first environment.
“I feel, in cricket especially, when I came, I was 24, now I am 26, as a young cricketer, you tell yourself that there's still a lot to achieve, it's just a start. Doing it once, I feel, is still easy, but making that thing a habit and doing it again and again, keeping the process the same, it's not easy as a player. But if the atmosphere in the team is such that everyone wants to perform for each other, wants to make India win, wants to dominate, then I feel it becomes a habit and it definitely helps,” Abhishek told JioStar.
That inclusive environment also shapes the way he interacts with the next generation inside the dressing room, including teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
Abhishek Sharma noted that Vaibhav is exceptionally smart and already possesses 2-3 years of experience in the cricket setup, meaning he already understands how to practice and navigate professional demands better than typical teenagers.
The senior teammates consciously treat him like a peer who belongs there. Abhishek sees it as his personal duty to act like an "elder brother" to ensure the 15-year-old prodigy feels entirely at home.
“He is a very smart guy. He is not like how we used to behave at 15 or anyone does because he has already been in that cricket setup for 2-3 years. So he knows what, where, and how much to practice. I feel gradually these are things he will learn more with experience. And what we discuss in the team with each other, all teammates, is how we can make him more comfortable,” Sharma stated.
“Because we all know what he has achieved and that he belongs here. So I also feel like it's my duty as well, to make him feel that all of us, his elder brothers, are here for him. You just have to enjoy and just give your best and win the games whenever you get the chance,” he remarked.