Over the last couple of years, Abhishek Sharma has taken the shortest format of the game by storm with his destructive, take-no-prisoners style of batting, both for the Sunrisers Hyderabad and for the Indian national team. Plenty of the credit for his style of batting has been given to his guru Yuvraj Singh, who is seen in plenty of videos chiseling away at his batting technique and also shaping Abhishek Sharma’s mindset. But in a recent interview, the India cricketer has spoken about how the dressing room environment at the Sunrisers Hyderabad has also freed him up. As he noted, captain Pat Cummins’ philosophy for the batting unit is: “Marte hue out hona chahiye, darte hue nahi!”
Abhishek has had a Player of the Tournament-winning performance at the Asia Cup, where he top scored for India with 314 runs from seven innings. Abhishek Sharma has revealed how part of his destructive mindset with the bat in hand also comes from the freedom he was given to thrill — nay, kill — by the leadership group at the SRH franchise, consisting of captain Pat Cummins and coach Daniel Vettori.
Asked about the influence of Pat Cummins and Daniel Vettori and his opening partnership with Australia’s Travis Head on the Breakfast with Champions show on YouTube, Abhishek Sharma said: “Travis Head, Pat Cummins and Daniel Vettori… I will tell you one thing about all of them. I could not have gotten a better environment (in an IPL team). Just imagine, we were once having our batting meeting, all batters were standing. Vettori asked us if we want to discuss any specific bowlers. We maybe spoke about one or two bowlers. Dan (Vettori) asked Pat if he wanted to say something. Pat got up and faced the five or six batters who were sitting together, ‘Who do you wanna hit? Let’s mark your bowlers. Hit, Hit, Hit’ he said pointing at us. That’s it, meeting over.
Abhishek Sharma continued: “Cummins told us, ‘In this team, even if we are 50 for the loss of six wickets, the 7th batter should not feel the pressure. Marte hue out hona chahiye, darte hue nahi! (Get out while hitting a big shot, not while protecting your wicket). I am fine with the team being 100 all out, but I don’t want safe scores of 160 or 170.’ He wanted us to back each other and take all bowlers head-on. Cummins would also say: ‘Hit all six balls if you want, me and Dan are with you. But this is the brand of cricket I want. The teams should fear us.’
“And he only says one thing to the bowlers: ‘Batters are doing their job. If they score 250, our job is to just concede 249… We just need to win, even if it’s by one run… If we score 280 runs, you can concede 279, I don’t have a problem. In the end we should win, that’s all.’”
Abhishek Sharma also spoke at length about his bond with SRH opening partner Travis Head. He said that in his Punjab cricket days, he would ask his teammates to emulate Head’s batting style, in the process causing them to lose their wickets while trying to hit the bowlers. Then, Head was picked by Hyderabad franchise to join Abhishek Sharma in the side.
“Whenever I would ask Travis for a plan in the middle, he would just say one thing, ‘Just spot the fielders and try to hit above them or in spaces where there is no one.’ He would say, ‘If you are not able to middle it, then give me the strike.’ I would think, ‘Why should I give you the strike, I’ll also hit.’ That’s why we have such good bonding, because his mindset is also the same. I used to enjoy watching Travis bat so much, because if you see, he dominates in all three formats. Bowlers would be scared of him.
“When Head got picked by SRH before the 2024-2025 IPL season, I was so happy to see that. Then Dan messaged me, ‘Do you want to open the innings or bat one down?’ I was like, ‘How can I not take the opportunity of opening with Travis Head.’ I said, ‘I will open, please!’”
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