'The way they handled me at that time...': Abhishek Sharma credits Suryakumar Yadav and Gautam Gambhir for his rapid rise in T20Is

Abhishek Sharma credited both Suryakumar Yadav and Gautam Gambhir for giving him confidence in batting with a fearless approach. Despite the left-hander's approach being quite risky, he went on achieve brilliant results with it in the Asia Cup and finished as the tournament's top-scorer with 314 runs from 7 matches. He also scored three half-centuries and maintained an explosive strike-rate of 200.00, massively contributing in the Men in Blue going unbeaten in the tournament.

Following the conclusion of the final against Pakistan, Abhishek remarked that even though his batting approach comes with a lot of risks, both Suryakumar and Gambhir expressed faith in him and wanted him to play fearless cricket.

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"I have never felt that this is a pressure match. We have prepared all the matches equally. Because of the way I have been playing. I felt like Surya bhai and GG ji have given me confidence because when you want to play like this [brand of cricket], you have to go up and down," Abhishek said at the post-match presentation.

"Obviously, if you want to play at such a high risk, then there are failures. But the way they handled me at that time, the way they [Gambhir and Suryakumar] talked to me at that time, I think because of that, especially to play like this because it is very important, that you have such support with the team,' he added.

Abhishek's rapid rise in T20Is

It took quite some time for Abhishek to become a regular in India's T20I set-up. His performance against England in the Men in Blue's last T20I assignment before the Asia Cup certainly helped him in cementing his place in the team. Notably, the 23-year-old had played a fantastic knock of 135 runs from just 54 deliveries in the fifth and final match of the series.

The left-hand batter has so far played 24 matches in the shortest format, scoring a total of 849 runs, including two centuries and five half-centuries. Abhishek's next T20I assignment will be the much-anticipated five-match series against Australia that will begin from October 29.

India reign supreme in Asia Cup

Meanwhile, India won a record-extending ninth Asia Cup title by defeating Pakistan in the final on Sunday. Suryakumar & Co. remained unbeaten throughout the tournament, asserting their dominance over the other Asian cricketing nations. Their victory over the Men in Green was their third win over their arch-rivals in the tournament. Suryakumar & Co. had defeated Pakistan once each in the group and Super 4 stage. They then went on to hand them another loss and this time it came in the all-important final.