“Abhishek Sharma is a world-class player” - Morne Morkel backs Indian opener ahead of the SA clash

Indian bowling coach Morne Morkel has supported the explosive Indian opener Abhishek Sharma after his three ducks in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2026 campaign, which is currently underway in India and Sri Lanka.

Speaking in the pre-match press conference ahead of the game against South Africa in the Super 8 round, Morkel made it clear to the media that there are no discussions around his slump in form in the dressing room.

"Absolutely no discussion in our team group about that. Abhishek is a world-class player. So far in the tournament, luckily, there have been guys standing up with Abhishek, obviously not scoring the runs he would like,” Morne Morkel said in the pre-match press conference.

"But we are going through a very important phase of the World Cup now, and I am pretty sure he's going to deliver. Not so much just for the team, but also for all the viewers watching the game, because he is entertaining, and we love to see that. So, yeah, I am pretty sure he is hitting the ball well in the nets. It is just a matter of getting that started and getting his innings going," he added.

Shifting our focus to the details of Abhishek Sharma’s form in the ongoing calendar year, he has played eight T20I innings, accumulating only 182 runs at an average of 26 and a strike rate of 224 with two half-centuries.

In the previous calendar year 2025, Sharma racked up a total of 859 runs from 21 T20I innings at an average of 42.95 and a strike rate of over 193, with a century and five half-centuries and the highest score of 135.

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