Abhishek Sharma - India's Six-Hitting Machine

Abhishek Sharma scored his seventh fifty in the first T20I against New Zealand and the southpaw smashed eight colossal hits over the fence during his fiery knock.

Abhishek Sharma - India's Six-Hitting Machine

There's a new six-hitting 'Sharma' in the Indian cricket team and NO!, it's not Rohit. A 25-year-old southpaw from Amritsar and he goes by the name of ABHISHEK SHARMA.

It was on October 19th, 2002 at Goodison Park where a young Evertonian smashed one from distance and the commentator went, 'Remember the name, Wayne Rooney'. Well none of this happened with Abhishek Sharma. He entered the international stage with a bang, played some jaw-dropping innings, ranks No.1 on the ICC T20I batters list. And boy oh boy, this lad can whack the kookaburra (white cricket ball).

Abhishek Sharma in T20Is

Sharma's T20I numbers are staggering. He's batted 33 times in the blue jersey (Get Yours Now) in the 20-over format, scored 1,199 runs at an average of 37.46, registered two hundreds and seven fifties. And here comes the mind boggling part - he's struck these runs at a strike-rate of 190.92.

How good is 190.92? - 528 batters who have scored at least 500 runs in T20Is. A total of 95 nations play T20Is. Sharma's strike-rate is the best.

Talk about impact? Sharma has won the man of the match award in T20Is FIVE times already and whenever the southpaw has gone past 30s, only once has his strike-rate been less than 175. The modern game demands plenty from opening batters. Abhishek Sharma not only demolishes those demands but has raised the bar to an absolute new high.

Six-hitting prowess

How does Abhishek Sharma generate such power and manages to clear the fence on such regular basis? For starters, his hand-eye co-ordination is up there with the very best and his bat swing is another thing of beauty. The swing starts from the slips and ends around his hips - YUVRAJ-ESQUE, perhaps. The flow of the bat is so incredibly smooth that mistimed strokes sometimes carry a mile.

Most sixes in T20Is for India (innings in brackets)

Rohit Sharma - 205 (151)

Suryakumar Yadav - 156 (94)

Virat Kohli - 124 (117)

Hardik Pandya - 107 (98)

KL Rahul - 99 (68)

Abhishek Sharma - 81 (33)

Sharma averages 2.45 sixes/innings - the best for a player from a full-member nation by a distance. How rare is averaging at least 2 sixes per innings? For players who have smashed over 75 sixes in T20Is only Evin Lewis (WI) - {2.06} and Abhishek Sharma (IND) - {2.45} average more than 2.

The southpaw smashes a six every 7.75 deliveries - again the best among full member nations.

We had one Sharma who smashed sixes for fun, the updated version is scarier and extra lethal. And, believe you me when I say this, Abhishek Sharma will only get better.