NEW DELHI: Former Indian coach Ravi Shastri has backed Indian opener Abhishek Sharma to bounce back from his poor run of form in the T20 World Cup, saying the young batter just needs to be patient. Abhishek suffered another setback in India’s big match against Pakistan in Colombo, getting out for a four-ball duck.
It was his second duck in a row in the tournament and his third in his last five T20 innings. Despite being the world’s top-ranked T20I batter, he is yet to score a run in this World Cup.Shastri believes such rough patches are normal for any player and that Abhishek will regain form once he spends some time at the crease. Speaking to sports presenter Sanjana Ganesan, he said, “I think he’s due, but he just has to give himself a little bit of time. Such things happen, and you can go off the boil, but he’s just got to give himself a little more time until he gets back on track. Because for him to convert those dot balls later on into boundaries and sixes, is not difficult.”Shastri also praised Ishan Kishan, who played a match-winning knock of 77 off 40 balls against Pakistan and was named Player of the Match. Kishan has been in red-hot form, scoring back-to-back half-centuries in the tournament. Shastri said, “He’s batting like a dream at the moment. Striking on that track (Colombo pitch) at close to 200 is unreal. Every batter didn’t find it easy, whether it was Indian or Pakistani, because the ball was stopping and for him to strike the way he did, and what I liked was how quickly he assessed the conditions.”In the match, Pakistan chose to bowl first, and after early wickets, India recovered to score 175/7, thanks to strong finishing by Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube and Rinku Singh. Pakistan collapsed during the chase and were bowled out for 114, giving India a dominant 61-run victory.India have now won all three matches in Group A so far and sit at the top, while Pakistan are third. The win also gives India an 8-1 lead over Pakistan in T20 World Cup head-to-head results.
