3 min readMar 15, 2026 05:20 PM IST
India head coach Gautam Gambhir said that he drew on some of his own experience as an opener to get Abhishek Sharma up and running in the 2026 T20 World Cup. Abhishek’s tournament had been thrown into disarray after he was forced to pay the hospital a visit due to a severe stomach infection.
He ended up not scoring a single run in the group stage and failed to make too big a difference in the Super Eights and semifinal. However, Abhishek set the tone in the final against New Zealand with a 98-run opening partnership with Sanju Samson. Gambhir pointed out that he had a similar experience at the start of the 2014 season of the Indian Premier League, in which he led Kolkata Knight Riders to the title for a second time.
“I’ve had a worse experience than him in 2014 during the IPL, when I got three ducks in a row and then another in the fourth game as well. All I told him was that people will look at your scores and will talk about your form, but actually you are not out of form, you are just out of runs,” he said on JioStar. Gambhir had started off the 2014 IPL with three ducks in a row and scored just one run in his fourth match.
“The only time you can judge your form is when you have played 20 to 30 balls in the middle, and he hasn’t even faced 20 balls yet. All I wanted him to do was go out there in the next game and be even more aggressive compared to what he was in the previous game.
“There was no doubt whatsoever about Abhishek. For anyone, to be honest, in that dressing room, we always had faith and trust in everyone who was selected to represent the country in the T20 World Cup.”
Abhishek scored 52 in 21 balls before falling to Rachin Ravindra in the eighth over of the final. Ishan Kishan then smashed 54 in 25 balls and put up a 105-run stand with Samson off just 48 balls. India then set up a score of 255/5 in 20 overs batting first in Ahmedabad. New Zealand were restricted to a score of 159 with Jasprit Bumrah returning dfigures of 4/15.
