Abhishek took the Kiwi bowling attack to the cleaners in final after struggling throughout the tournament.
India opener Abhishek Sharma silenced his critics with a blistering half-century in the T20 World Cup 2026 final against New Zealand at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Sunday (March 8).
The southpaw, who had managed only 89 runs from seven innings prior to the final, rose to the occasion in the title clash by slamming the fastest half-century of the tournament.
Abhishek hammered his fifty in just 18 balls, eventually departing for 52 off 21. His knock, studded with 6 fours and 3 sixes, laid the foundation of India’s mammoth 255/5 in 20 overs, which proved to be too much for the Kiwis, who were bowled out for 159 in 19 overs.
Following the historic triumph, India head coach Gautam Gambhir explained why the team management continued backing Abhishek Sharma despite his lean run in the T20 World Cup.
Notably, several former cricketers, including the legendary Sunil Gavaskar, had called for Sharma’s snub from India’s XI ahead of the final. However, the team management’s trust paid off as the left-hander produced a clutch knock to help his team defend the coveted title.
“Look, you pick players based on trust and faith, not on hope. If you pick someone based on trust and faith, you cannot take that away after four or five matches. But if you pick someone only on hope, then you might lose that hope very quickly,” Gambhir said while speaking to Aaj Tak.
“Whether it’s Abhishek or any of the 15 players in that dressing room, we trust all of them. Whenever they get an opportunity at any stage of the competition, they will deliver for the team. The most important thing for this team was putting the team ahead of themselves,” he added.
Gambhir further stated that they don’t only look at the number of runs but also the impact a player makes in the game.
“People outside might only look at Abhishek’s runs. But if you ask me as a coach, there was never a match where Abhishek scored something like 20 runs off 20 balls. That kind of innings hurts the team more than getting out while trying to play aggressively. So the simple message to him was: if you are not scoring runs, go into the next match and play even more aggressively instead of going into your shell,” he remarked.
The India coach also cited the example of Sanju Samson, who was out of form leading up to the T20 World Cup but ended up winning the Player-of-the-Tournament award.
“See, it never happens that every player in the squad is in form. That has never happened with any team. You can never go into a World Cup with every single player in top form. There will always be players in form and some out of form,” Gambhir said.
“If you saw the New Zealand series, Sanju wasn’t scoring runs. But the way he batted in the World Cup, I think that’s a dream for any cricketer. And in fact, it was the other way around for Abhishek Sharma. That’s the nature of the T20 format. People judge players by the number of runs they score, but the team management judges them by the impact they create," he added.