Former Indian opener Ravichandran Ashwin praised Australia for their bowling plans against Abhishek Sharma in the fourth T20I at the Gold Coast on Thursday. Ashwin highlighted that Australian bowlers were limiting the hitting areas for Sharma to keep him at bay.
The left-hander scored 28 runs off 21 balls in the penultimate match of the series. India posted 167 runs on the board on a difficult pitch as the Australian bowlers were able to execute their plans.
Ashwin highlighted that Australian bowlers were bowling outside the off-stump to Abhishek and didn’t bowl at the stumps against him.
Ashwin said on his YouTube Channel, “Abhishek Sharma has been one of the deadly batters against fast bowlers inside the powerplay, against any bowler. Australian bowlers to Abhishek Sharma, in the powerplay itself, he made 29 off 23, of which a sixth over went for a lot. Before that, Abhishek Sharma was going at less than a run a ball. See, they had a plan to slightly reduce bat swing.”
“You will notice that Nathan Ellis hasn’t bowled any balls within the stumps to Abhishek Sharma. They have gone wide outside the off stump, and they also went a bit pace off to make sure that a swinging arc is curtailed. So against Abhishek Sharma, he is not weak on the off side; he hits very strongly there. But they are limiting hitting areas by bowling slightly wider and also taking the pace off so that it can come a bit straighter. I thought they bowled really well,” he added.
Ashwin noted that Abhishek tries to improve the shortcomings in his game and he will definitely look to come up with a better plan.
“But as far as I have seen Abhishek Sharma, he improves very fast, and this is one thing that will challenge him, because Abhishek’s swing arc, as far as the ball falls in the stumps, can really give it a wake. So they are taking it away from the stumps. Hence, they are also keeping the odd bouncer at him as a real possibility. The more you bowl outside, his head will drop in that direction, and to hit there, they can keep that bouncer to get him out, probably a deep square leg. They are also taking the pace off so that they can challenge the bat swing.”
The fifth and final T20I of the series between Australia and India will be played at the Gabba, Brisbane, on Saturday.
