Ajinkya Rahane praises Abhishek Sharma’s ability to find ways to score runs

Ajinkya Rahane has praised Abhishek Sharma for finding ways to score runs without compromising his attacking intent. The former India batter called him a special talent, highlighting his consistency, high strike rate and achievement of 2,000 T20I runs.

New Delhi: Former Indian cricketer Ajinkya Rahane heaped praise on opener Abhishek Sharma for finding ways and methods to score runs even when he’s struggling a bit.

Abhishek slammed 69 off 30 balls and took a little time to eye in when off-spinner Roston Chase came for the first over, with his earlier struggles with off-spin known.

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He played a few deliveries from Chase carefully before lining him up for two sixes and a four through the off-side in the third over. Speaking on the opener’s knock after he helped India make 223 in the first innings, Rahane called Abhishek a “special talent” and said that he finds methods to score runs.

“See, he’s a special talent. We were talking about him, his intent every single time. What I like about Abhishek Sharma is his finding methods to score runs. If he’s struggling with a particular area, he will find a way, find that different method to score runs without losing that intent, without losing that strike rate, I mean,” Rahane told Cricbuzz.

Abhishek has a strike rate of 195.95 in T20Is, which is the highest in the world among players who have faced at least 250 balls. He also completed his 2000 runs in the shortest international format during the West Indies T20I in Indore and took only 1024 balls to get to the mark. He is now the fastest to reach there in terms of balls taken.

“We see his strike rate throughout his career so far is close to 200. And the consistency is so amazing. (He is) the fastest player or batter to score 2000 runs in T20 format, which is something amazing,” Rahane further said.

Abhishek has been one of the top-ranked batters in the world for a long time now. He is currently No.2 in the ICC T20I rankings for batters and was the World No.1 previously.

The 26-year-old has 2036 runs in 64 T20I innings with three centuries and 14 half-centuries to his name. During his 69 against the Windies, the Southpaw also equalled Suryakumar Yadav’s record for hitting the most sixes in a calendar year among full-member nations. He has 68 maximums to his name in 2026 and has all the chance to break the record now, with several T20Is still lined up.