Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson - (Source: X.com)
Abhishek Sharma's tournament has gone from bad to worse as the southpaw registered another failure in the T20 World Cup 2026. Hopes were on the 25-year-old to shine against England in the semis, but Sharma returned to the pavilion after scoring 9 (7), which featured couple of fours.
Abhishek Sharma is having a tournament to forget as he has amassed just 89 runs in seven innings, averaging 12.71. The internet went into a frenzy and there were demands to drop Sharma in the final in case India beat England. The fans were upset with the nature of the dismissal as Abhishek gave a simple catch to Phil Salt at the boundary.
Abhishek Sharma Ignores Sanju Samson's Advice
Abhishek has struggled against spinners in the entire tournament, which is why Harry Brook put Will Jacks into the attack. Sharma scored couple of boundaries in the over, but fell prey to the bait thrown at him and threw his wicket on the last ball of the over.
Interestingly, on the fourth ball, Samson had walked upto Abhishek and advised him to play carefully and ground shots. Right after the conversation, Jacks gave a freebie and Sharma hit a full-toss for a four. Instead of following Samson's advice, Abhishek played a half-hearted lofted shot and gave a catch to Salt.
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Abhishek was angry with the shot selection and so was the dressing room. Notably, Sanju Samson was upset because the southpaw didn't follow his advice.
Abhishek Sharma Scripts Unwanted Record With Failure
Abhishek Sharma scripted an unwanted feat and beat Virat Kohli's disastrous 2024 edition to register lowest batting average for India in a single edition of the Men's T20 WC with minimum 7 innings. Here is the complete list.
Lowest batting average for India in a single edition of the Men's T20 WC (Min. 7 Inns)
- 12.71 - Abhishek Sharma in 2026 (85 Runs)*
- 18.87 - Virat Kohli in 2024 (151 Runs)
- 22.16 - Shivam Dube in 2024 (133 Runs)
Abhishek Sharma's struggle continues against spin
Abhishek Sharma's struggle continues against spin as he has scored just 34 runs in six innings against the spinners in this edition. He has been dismissed on four occasions, averaging 8.50.
The opposition has clearly exploited this weakness and New Zealand too would be aware of this given India reach the final. Also, Sharma is yet to make any impact in knockout games irrespective of the leagues and format. Here's how he has performed.
- IPL Final : 2(5)
- IPL Playoffs : 3(4)
- IPL Playoffs : 12(5)
- Asia Cup final(vs PAK) : 5(6)
- IND vs PAK (WC) : 0(4)
- IND vs WI, knockout (WC) : 10(11)
-IND Vs ENG , semi final WC : 9(6)
Talking about the ongoing match, at the time of writing this article, India are 99/1 after 8.2 overs.
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