Sunil Gavaskar trolls himself to praise Abhishek Sharma with epic one-liner

Sunil Gavaskar in fun mode with Abhishek Sharma - (Source: X.Com)

On Wednesday, January 21, India locked horns against New Zealand in the first of a five-match T20I series. The Men in Blue started the tour with a 48-run win over the Kiwis. Abhishek Sharma won the player of the match for his heroics that took the game away from blackcaps early on in the match. 

India, batting first, put 238 runs on the board, which was their highest total against New Zealand in T20Is. Abhishek Sharma was the star batter and scored 84 (35), which featured five fours and eight sixes. Interestingly, the southpaw slammed eight sixes and five fours. 

Abhishek set the tone early on when he reached his fifty in just 22 balls, marking his 3rd joint-fastest fifty in T20I career. Following India’s win, Abhishek garnered praise from fans and cricket pundits. However, the most special message came from the special man and legendary figure, Sunil Gavaskar.

Sunil Gavaskar trolls himself to praise Abhishek Sharma

The little master, who was the presenter for the first T20I, got hold of Abhishek and praised the young talent for his sensational batting. Gavaskar highlighted Abhishek’s astonishing 200+ strike-rate and took a dig at himself to acknowledge Sharma’s heroics, who frustrated New Zealand with his powerhitting and huge sixes in the powerplay. 

“Abhishek Sharma gets to his half-century in the same number of balls as I used to just to get off the mark,” remarked Sunil Gavaskar while speaking to Star Sports. Meanwhile, Abhishek was pleased to hear his praise and acknowledge the remarks from the legend himself, who praised Sharma's ability to utilise the powerplay.

Gavaskar addressed his white-ball criticism

Talking about Sunil Gavaskar, the legendary figure needs no introduction as he was a talisman in red-ball cricket and rated as one of the finest to ever play the game. However, he faces criticism for his white-ball game as Gavaskar only amassed 3098 runs in 108 ODIs, with a strike-rate of 62. 

Therefore, Gavaskar, who is known for his brilliant sense of humour, took the opportunity to praise Abhishek by taking a dig at himself. For the unversed, Gavaskar is quite active and vocal with his views and regularly opines views on the cricket happenings. 

Abhishek Sharma shows respect to Sunil Gavaskar

In a great move, Abhishek too showed respect to Sunil Gavaskar and a clip is going viral, where Sunny G is trying to match up with youngsters pace and join him for a pre-match run. While, Abhishek bows in respect and touches Gavasar’s feet to continue with his jog.

Notably, it is not the first time that Abhishek Sharma has shown his admiration and respect for Sunil Gavaskar as on past occassions as well, the southpaw has touched Gavaskar's feet. Even after Asia Cup 2025, where Abhishek was the key contributor with 314 runs in seven innings with an average of 44.86 and a staggering strike rate of 200.