India captain Suryakumar Yadav on Saturday fired back at critics who questioned Abhishek Sharma’s form after the opener registered three consecutive ducks to start his T20 World Cup campaign. Speaking ahead of the Super 8 clash against South Africa in Ahmedabad, Suryakumar also ruled out the possibility of Abhishek being replaced by Sanju Samson, even if the struggles continue.
The left-hander has endured a forgettable start, yet to open his account after facing eight deliveries across three matches. In between, he missed the group-stage fixture against Namibia due to a stomach infection.
However, Suryakumar’s remarks underlined the team management’s backing for Abhishek, who had taken T20I cricket by storm last year. While acknowledging that the batter has been working on certain vulnerabilities, the skipper stressed that the team is prepared to support him if things do not click immediately.
“Those who are worried about Abhishek Sharma’s form, I am worried about them. I think about the teams he is going to play against. The rest, you already know the answer. You have all seen what happens when he gets going. It’s a team sport, so such things happen. The team’s requirement is that he plays with his identity, so that’s what he is trying to do. If it comes off, good; if not, we are all there to cover it. He covered for us all last year, now it’s our turn,” he said.
With Abhishek falling early, India have struggled to replicate the powerplay numbers they produced during bilateral series, prompting questions about whether Samson could be drafted in to add a right-handed option to a line-up that has looked vulnerable against off-spin. Suryakumar, however, dismissed that suggestion.
“It’s going fine. 40–50 runs in the powerplay is normal cricket. We played so well in the bilaterals… so these expectations are natural. Even from within, there’s that thought that we should score 220 or more. But the wickets are different here in the matches we’ve played so far. Off-spinners have been introduced early into the attack against us, which is different from previous matches. So we’ve started preparing for that. Hopefully, we will tackle it.”
