Abhishek Sharma is expected to play a pivotal role in India’s T20 World Cup 2026 defence. Since his debut in July 2024, the southpaw has established himself as one of the most explosive batters in world cricket.
Abhishek has played 38 T20Is so far, scoring 1297 runs at an incredible strike rate of 194.74, including two hundreds and eight fifties. Despite being aggressive in his approach, the left-hander has managed to maintain an impressive average of 37.05 as well.
Under Suryakumar Yadav-Gautam Gambhir regime, the Men in Blue have embraced a more aggressive approach in the shortest format, consistently outbatting their opponents and Abhishek’s quick starts have been critical in setting the tone.
Impressive with his exploits, Australian legend Ricky Ponting has backed Abhishek Sharma to leave a big mark at the upcoming T20 World Cup.
Ponting believes the swashbuckling opener could end the competition as the leading run-getter and even win Player-of-the-Tournament.
"He's a star," Ponting said in the latest edition of The ICC Review. "I think it's (lack of experience) a real positive to be honest. He can be the leading run-scorer and potentially the Player of the Tournament.
"That's how good I think he is. And if he does, that makes India even harder to beat. If he doesn't, then they're as vulnerable as anybody else. So that's how important I think he is to this (T20) World Cup for India."
Recalling the experience of working with Abhishek in the IPL, Ponting said being on a global stage will not bother the youngster.
"I was his first IPL coach. He debuted with me, I think as a 17-year-old at Delhi and made an immediate impact. I think he hit his first ball for four or six straight back over the bowler's head with that classical sort of straight bat and held the pose. And you could just see then as a 17-year-old that there was something extra special," the former Australian captain stated.
Ponting also revealed he had strongly opposed Delhi Capitals' decision to trade Abhishek. "We ended up trading him away from Delhi, but I pleaded and pleaded and pleaded and said, please don't do this. We've got to (keep him), there's an absolute superstar in the making here. And that's what it's turned out to be. I've got really high hopes for him in this time."
India will begin their T20 World Cup title defence on February 7 against the USA at the Wankhede Stadium. They have been drawn in Group A along with the USA, Pakistan, the Netherlands and Namibia.
India’s T20 World Cup 2026 squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Axar Patel (vc), Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Washington Sunder, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy
