Abhishek: I back myself because I don't have a lot of shots

After eight sixes off the middle off the bat, a strike rate of 240 after facing 35 balls, a 22-ball fifty, and another staggering display of new-ball hitting, India batter Abhishek Sharma said he just backs his shots "because I don't have a lot of shots". Abhishek's whirlwind knock in the first T20I against New Zealand continued his stunning display of boundary-hitting in T20s and set up the hosts' 48-run victory.

Abhishek came out all guns blazing after India were asked to bat and went about smoking four sixes before hitting his first four, after the powerplay had ended. Since Abhishek doesn't get much time as an opener to assess conditions before he gets going, he said doing some homework before a game helped him get in the zone.

"If you watch videos [of bowlers] or if you watch your batting videos as well, you get an idea that where the bowler is planning to bowl to you or maybe where I'm going to play my shots," Abhishek said at the presentation. "But it's always about me backing my shots because I don't have a lot of shots. It's just a few shots. I'm going to practice a lot and just execute it."

Though Abhishek struck some towering sixes, he said his game was not about power-hitting. Among Full-Member teams, Abhishek has been the most prolific six-hitter in T20Is since the 2024 T20 World Cup. He has 81 sixes from 33 innings while the next best is Pakistan's Sahibzada Farhan with 47 sixes from 32 knocks.

"If you see, I would never do range-hitting because I'm not that strong kind of guy," he said. "I feel I'm more of a timing batter. So, for me, I have to just watch the ball and get used to the conditions because we are playing all over India right now and so I have to adapt to the conditions very quickly. And for that, I plan a day before or probably whenever I get a net session. So, that's always in my mind because these kinds of bowlers are going to bowl here and they got some plans, so I have to back it (my game) as well."

Out of the 35 balls Abhishek faced, 28 went for runs and 13 went for boundaries. Unlike a lot of other batters, he continued to pepper the fence even after the powerplay ended, which included a streak of three consecutive fours in the seventh over and back-to-back sixes against Ish Sodhi in the 12th.

"I don't feel it's a high-risk [game]," Abhishek said about his approach. "For me, I wouldn't say it's my comfort zone, but it's like I always want the team to be first because they want to use the first six overs and that's what I've been practising before the nets as well. And that was always in my mind, because all the main bowlers from all the teams, they bowl first, second, three overs probably [early on]. And if I can score [off them] in the first three or four overs, then we have always got the upper hand.

"One thing I've figured is that if you want to hit all the balls or probably if you want to play at the strike rate of 200 or something then you have to carry that intent and you have to practice a lot for that. Because all these teams always have a plan for me because so far I think it's just not the fielding [placements], it's all about the pitching and the bowling as well. So it's about the preparation I'm doing before the games because I've got two-three days or maybe a week before this. So I knew that I'm going to get challenged by these bowlers, but obviously I'm going to back my instinct and I've been practising a lot about that."