Indian opener Abhishek Sharma accused Pakistani players of provoking his team with ‘personal attacks’ during the Super Four clash of the 2025 Asia Cup in Dubai on Sunday, saying that he didn’t ‘like it at all’ and it motivated him to go after them and deliver for the Men in Blue.
Abhishek was involved in multiple arguments in the game. The first was after he hit a first-ball six against Shaheen Afridi, and he was seen hurling abuses at the Pakistani pacer, though the camera didn’t show what Afridi said to him before that. Similarly, when Shubman Gill hit Haris Rauf for a boundary, Abhishek and the latter had a big argument where the umpires had to intervene to decouple them.
Abhishek ended up winning the Player of the Match for his half-century
(74 off 39) as India secured a big, six-wicket win. The left-hander set up the platform, alongside his ex-Punjab teammate and childhood friend, Shubman Gill, who hit 47 off 28, before Tilak Varma finished things off with a nice cameo.
“Paaji, today, I think I needed to do something because I didn’t like what was happening,” he said afterwards in a chat with Sony Sports Network. “The words that were being said… after every ball, they were making personal attacks. Shubman Gill and I were talking about it — that we’ll win our team the match and give them a befitting reply,” he added.
Earlier, when he was given the award in the post-match ceremony, he had mentioned the same thing.
“Today was pretty simple; the way they were coming onto us without any reason, I did not like it at all,” Abhishek said. “That’s why I went after them. I wanted to deliver for the team. We (he and Gill) have been playing since school days, we enjoy each other’s company, we thought we would do it and today was the day. The way he was giving it back, I really enjoyed it. If you see someone playing like this, it’s because the team supports me and they back me. That’s the intent I show and I’m practicing really hard and if it’s my day, I’m gonna win it for my team,” he added.
