Last Updated on 1 month ago by Charbel Coorey
Abhishek Sharma’s struggles were well documented throughout India’s T20 World Cup campaign. However, he bounced back strongly and scored a crucial fifty in the final when the team needed it the most.
Gautam Gambhir, with JioHotstar, spoke of his own poor performance with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) back in IPL 2014 when they won their second Indian Premier League title with him as captain.
Gautam Gambhir reveals his message to Abhishek Sharma during disappointing T20 World Cup campaign
When asked about what he told Abhishek during his poor phase, he said, “I’ve had worse experience than him back in 2014 during the IPL when I scored three ducks in a row, and I scored one in the fourth game.”
All I told him was, “Yes, people will look at your scores and talk about your form, but actually you are not out of form but actually out of runs. The only time you judge your form is when you have played 20-30 balls and you haven’t even faced 20 balls.”
He continued, “In the T20 format, when you don’t get runs, you don’t get runs. All I wanted from him was to be even more aggressive in the next game than he was in the last one.”
“It doesn’t matter what the world thinks about you; all that matters is what the people in the dressing room think about you,” he concluded.
Abhishek scored just 89 runs in his first seven innings in the tournament, with 55 of those coming against Zimbabwe. However, his 21-ball 52 in the final swung the game firmly in India’s favour during the powerplay.
Gautam Gambhir’s impressive portfolio as India white-ball coach
Gambhir also said that he only had a casual chat with Sanju Samson in the gym, where he told him that he (Sanju) will be playing in the next game after India’s loss to South Africa.
India has now won the 2026 T20 World Cup, 2025 Champions Trophy, and the 2025 Asia Cup in Gambhir’s tenure. The Indian white-ball team has been in terrific form since he has taken over as the head coach, and the 2027 ODI World Cup is now in his sights.
“The planning for the 2027 World Cup will start after the IPL. There are 25 to 30 ODIs between IPL 2026 and the World Cup. This format is not played a lot these days. The earlier we start planning, the better it will be for us,” Gambhir said, as quoted by Hindustan Times.
