The Indian cricket team is currently locking horns with Australia in a five-match T20I series, being played Down Under. After the first T20I in Canberra was washed out due to incessant rain, the hosts took a comfortable lead in the series after claiming the second T20I in Melbourne by four-wicket win on Friday, October 31. After winning the toss and inviting the visitors to bat first, the Aussies restricted the T20 champions to 125 in 18.4 overs.
While Abhishek Sharma was the highest run-getter for Team India, playing a 37-ball 68, he fell to Nathan Ellis somehow surviving Josh Hazlewood, who finished with figures of 3/13 in his four-over spell. During his bowling stint, the right-arm fast bowler dismissed Shubman Gill, skipper Suryakumar Yadav
and Tilak Varma, leaving India struggling in the powerplay.
Oh is he?: Abhishek Sharma left surprised on knowing Hazlewood’s absence in remainder T20Is
Seeing the world-class bowler shine for the Aussies, Abhishek Sharma was left in awe of his bowling. While hailing the star pacer, when asked about how he feels to know that Hazlewood won’t be part of the remainder of the series, he replied, "Oh, is he? ” “ I didn't know this, but obviously, I mean, he's good enough to play all the formats, but still I was enjoying this challenge because somehow as a batter, you have to face the world-class bowlers, and that's what I was trying to do," Abhishek further added at the post-match press conference .
Watch video of Abhishek Sharma’s reaction on knowing of Hazlewood’s absence:
Hazlewood aims to switch to red-ball practice ahead of the highly-anticipated Ashes series and will thus miss the remainder of T20I series against India. While Abhishek Sharma was surprised knowing of Hazlewood’s absence, he also hailed the latter’s bowling antics, stating, “ I think as a batter, I was watching him in in the ODIs as well. So somehow we knew that he's gonna give us this much difficulty and challenges. So obviously, the way he bowled today, even I got surprised. I haven't seen something like this in T20s."
