'He is ready to play all three formats...': Ex-Australia captain shares bold statement on Abhishek Sharma

Former Australia captain Michael Clarke feels that Abhishek Sharma has the potential to become India's next all-format player. This comes after the 25-year-old has rapidly risen through the ranks in the Indian team when it comes to the shortest formats and has played some phenomenal knocks. He also was the top run-getter of Asia Cup 2025 and played a key role in the Men in Blue's triumph.

Clarke's massive prediction on Abhishek

With the five-match T20I series between India and Australia right around the corner, Clarke predicted Abhishek to come out as the top run-getter for the assignment. Notably, this will be the first time that the left-hand batter will be playing on Australian pitches, so it remains to be seen how he will perform.

"I'm gonna go Abhishek Sharma. Now, I think he's ready to play all three formats for India. It's hard, you can only fit 11 players in and 6 batters in, but I reckon he is an absolute superstar in this format. He's performed very well for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL, but I reckon he just needs a chance to shine in international cricket,' Clarke saud on the Beyond23 Cricket podcast.

"Opens the batting, left-hander, got all the shots. I can't wait to watch him play. So I think, I think he'll be the leading run scorer in the series," he added.

Abhishek's numbers in T20Is

Abhishek has so far played 24 matches in T20Is and has scored a total of 849 runs. He has two centuries and five fifties under his name so far and will be looking to add more to his tally in the upcoming series against Australia that will commence from October 29. He has become a key part of the Men in Blue's T20I set-up and there are possibilities that the selectors may soon try him out in the other two formats as well.

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India’s squad for Australia T20Is: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill (VC), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar.