Asia Cup 2025: Suresh Raina compares Abhishek Sharma to Virender Sehwag

If Virender Sehwag were to arrive again in cricket his style wonrsquot be dissimilar to the disdain with which Abhishek Sharma treated Shaheen Shah Afridi on Sunday albeit lefthanded former India batter Suresh Raina tells midday a day after Suryakumar Yadav amp Corsquos sixwicket win over Pakistan in the Asia Cup Super 4s match at DubaiAbhishek hooked Pakistanrsquos premium pacer Afridi for a six off the very first ball of the match mdash a shot that will stay fresh in the mind for ages reminding Raina of his former teammate Sehwag ldquoDefinitely you can say thatrdquo replied Raina when midday asked him if Abhishek seemed like it was Sehwag batting lefthanded Suresh RainaldquoI have seen Viru bhai Sehwag making double and triple hundreds Players like that can change a game singlehandedly Abhishek is the new super star No 1 T20I batsman His range of hitting is unbelievablerdquo added Raina a prolific whileball player himselfAll fired upA dropped catch while fielding at the boundary followed by some heckling from the Pakistan fans and a bit of needling by Haris Rauf was enough to fire up the young India opener And adding a bit more aggression to Abhishekrsquos batting was his Punjabi statemate and opening partner Shubman GillTogether they made a mockery of Pakistanrsquos challenging 1715 with a partnership of 105 in just 95 overs Gill made 47 off 28 balls with eight fours but itwas Abhishekrsquos 39ball 74 including five sixes and six fours that sent Pakistan bowlers running for coverAbhishek shot to fame while setting the Indian Premier League ablaze with his big hits for Sunrisers Hyderabad He has so far played only 21 T20Is scoring 708 runs at an average of 3540 with a strike rate of 19721 including two hundreds and three fifties He is yet to play an ODI but Raina is confident that the 25yearold opener will not just play all three formats but will excel too ldquoEvery team has a couple of wickettaking bowlers but Abhishekrsquos gamesense can take them bowlers out of the equation He has a sharp brain I think he will master ODIs as well He has some fine gameawareness and knows exactly when to switch gears He has a lot of trust in his hitting ability but that hitting comes with a sense of poise You will seldom see him getting carried away Such players are allformat playersrdquo said RainaIt is well known that Abhishek has been mentored by Yuvraj Singh who was in a similar mould mdash a bighitting lefthander mdash but in the middle order Raina said that Yuvrajrsquos role in making Abhishek mentally stronger will ensure he can play some long innings leading to big hundredsThe Yuvi effectldquoYuvi pa has strengthened the mental aspect of Abhishekrsquos game When a bighitting player gets his eye in he becomes impossible to stop Yuvi pa has brought that sense of poise in his batting Big players like Yuvraj MS Dhoni can tune their minds but you learn that over the years Abhishek is learning how to convert fifties into hundreds right nowrdquo said Raina 38 who retired in 2020 after playing 18 Tests 226 ODIs and 78 T20Is accumulating 768 5615 and 1605 runs respectively The 2011 World Cupwinner also believes that Abhishekrsquos leftarm spin will be a handy addition to Indiarsquos ODI setup ldquoYuvi Pa Viru bhai Sachin Tendulkar paaji Yusuf Pathan and myself all of us used to bowl spin a few overs Abhishek can fill that gap in our ODI setup Even if he manages to deliver four overs it gives the captain the option to maneuver his bowlers and utilise them more efficientlyrdquo said Raina adding that the opening leftright combo is another added advantage ldquoWe have seen leftright opening combinations of Viru and Gauti bhai Gautam Gambhir Viru and Dada Sourav Ganguly Dada and Sachin And now we have Abhishek and Shubman Gill Indiarsquos current head coach Gauti bhai was himself a lefthanded opener so he will know how important that slot isrdquo concluded Raina