Abhishek Sharma

Abhishek Sharma along with Travis Head have made the reputation for being the most destructive opening pair in the IPL 2024 season. Abhishek smashed the fastest fifty for Sunrisers Hyderabad off just 16 balls, as they put up 277 against Mumbai Indians.

He was part of India's U-19 World Cup squad in 2018, which also won the title in News Zealand. A week before boarding the flight to New Zealand, Abhishek, 17, was signed by Delhi Daredevils. With Delhi out of the playoff race, Abhishek was handed his IPL debut against Royal Challengers Bangalore, where he made an instant impact with a 19-ball 46.

After spending just one season at Delhi, he joined Sunrisers Hyderabad ahead of the 2019 season and has been part of the franchise ever since. IPL 2024 was a breakout season for the youngster, where the cricketing world took notice of the talented youngster.

Abhishek, armed with a solid technique against both pace and spin has the ability to play the aggressive brand of cricket. He started batting in the middle-order but was promoted higher up the order for his state team Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL. The transition to the top order has done wonders to his confidence as a batter. He is also a handy left-arm spinner, who can chip in with a few quick overs.

His name started doing the rounds from age-group cricket. In the 2015-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy, a domestic U-16 tournament, Abhishek amassed 1200 runs in seven matches. He led India to U-19 Asia Cup title, and was a key member in India's U-19 World Cup winning squad in 2018. In the quarterfinal match against Bangladesh, Abhishek put up an allround show by scoring a fifty and returning figures of 2 for 11.

In 2022, Abhishek's fourth season with Sunrisers, he got 426 runs at a strike rate of 133. Notably in a match against Gujarat Titans, he belted 34 from 15 balls off Rashid Khan. The next year, he played a pivotal role in helping Punjab lift their first Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 trophy. In that tournament, Abhishek scored 485 runs, which included two centuries and three fifties at a strike-rate over 180. His 112 off 51 balls against Andhra Pradesh in the same tournament powered Punjab to a record total of 275 for 6.

Abhishek has taken the IPL 2024 by storm and in one league game, he smashed 63 off 23 balls as Sunrisers put up 277 for 3 against Mumbai Indians. It would be unfair to call him a player best suited for limited-overs because he too has proved his mettle in red-ball cricket. In his Ranji Trophy debut match, he scored 94 batting at No.8 and in 2022 he scored his maiden first-class hundred against Chandigarh.

Abhishek, Shubman Gill and Riyan Parag were team-mates in the winning 2018 U-19 World Cup squad. Gill and Abhishek made it to Punjab's Ranji Trophy side around the same time, but it was Gill who shot to prominence by earning the India cap. However, Abhishek's Punjab team-mates say that the left-handed batter lacked patience and consistency when he started out, but in recent years he has worked on that aspect of his game and the result is for everyone to see.