The Indian team management had shown plenty of faith in Abhishek Sharma during his bad patch. In most parts of the T20 World Cup 2026, the opener’s bat remained silent. Speaking exclusively to India Today’s sister channel AajTak, Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir explained why they keep trusting Sharma.
Abhishek Sharma bounced back in his infamous form on the biggest occasion of the tournament. In the final match against New Zealand, the southpaw played a rapid half-century. The opening pair of Abhishek and Sanju Samson took Team India near the 100-run mark in record time. Without the backing from the team management, the Punjab-born might not be able to deliver in the summit clash.
Gambhir said that they selected a player based on trust and faith, not on hope. They have trust and faith in the batter, even when he recorded three ducks on a trot.
“Look, you pick players based on trust and faith, not on hope. If you pick someone based on trust and faith, you cannot take that away after four or five matches. But if you pick someone only on hope, then you might lose that hope very quickly”, Gautam Gambhir told.
The head coach further stated that if Abhishek scored a 20-run knock in 20 balls, that would have hurt the team a long way. As he was quickly loosing wicket, that did not harm the team’s momentum. So, as a coach, Gambhir was not furious like many critics.
The head coach is actually not fully unhappy with Sharma's off-form
“People outside might only look at Abhishek’s runs. But if you ask me as a coach, there was never a match where Abhishek scored something like 20 runs off 20 balls. That kind of innings hurts the team more than getting out while trying to play aggressively”, Gautam Gambhir explained.
“So the simple message to him was: if you are not scoring runs, go into the next match and play even more aggressively instead of going into your shell”, he added further.
Gautam Gambhir talked about Sanju Samson
For example, the former cricketer mentioned Sanju Samson. Samson was struggling to get into runs before the T20 World Cup 2026, when Team India was up against New Zealand. Despite back-to-back underwhelming knocks, the management kept him playing in the series before sending him outside the playing XI. When Samson got back into the team again, he scored runs for fun and was eventually named the player of the tournament as well.
“If you saw the New Zealand series, Sanju wasn’t scoring runs. But the way he batted in the World Cup, I think that’s a dream for any cricketer. And in fact, it was the other way around for Abhishek Sharma. That’s the nature of the T20 format. People judge players by the number of runs they score, but the team management judges them by the impact they create”, Gautam Gambhir said.
Abhishek Sharma’s batting stats in the T20 World Cup 2026:
Total Number of Matches
Runs
Batting Average
Strike Rate
4s
6s
8
141
17.62
158.42
16
8
Read More: Ishan Kishan fires shots at Ajit Agarkar for punishing him after T20 World Cup triumph.
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