In an era where opening the batting in Test cricket revolved around giving the first hour, if not the first session, to the bowlers, K. Srikkanth was a glorious exception to the accepted rule. High on risk and therefore a little short on consistency, the maverick from Tamil Nadu was unstoppable when in the mood, treating the best fast bowlers in the world with utter disdain.

Mark Greatbatch at the 1992 World Cup, and Sanath Jayasuriya in 1996, are often eulogised for changing the face of opening the batting, but long before these two left-handers left their mark, Srikkanth had made hitting over the top fashionable. With complete and utter disregard for reputations, and with a nonchalance that comes only to the chosen few.

Strategies chalked at team meetings, he was told, need not concern him. First Sunil Gavaskar, and then Kapil Dev, encouraged Srikkanth to be himself, to bat with natural flair and flamboyance. No one expected him to bat like Gavaskar, studied in defence and treating each ball assiduously on its merit because, well, he wouldn’t be Srikkanth then, would he? And so, the right-hander went on a rampage whenever he could.

Not an accurate picture

A Test average of 29.88 from 43 matches, and a 50-over international average of 29.01 spread across 145 innings, do not paint an accurate picture of the potential for mayhem that he possessed. Srikkanth was a lot more than the sum of his six international hundreds and the highest individual tally in a low-scoring final of the 1983 World Cup, because the entertainment he provided and the value he brought with him to the batting crease were beyond parallel in that time and age.

Srikkanth was a pioneer, without question, his brand of batsmanship unique and remarkably enviable in his time in international cricket. The subsequent emergence of a host of destructive openers, among them a certain Sachin Tendulkar who was thrust into the role of an ODI opener almost accidentally in 1994 and who went on to finish with 49 international tons in the 50-over version, is a back-handed compliment to the Srikkanth school of aggression that has gained immense currency in the last two and a quarter decades, from the time the 20-over iteration stormed cricketing consciousness.

Virender Sehwag and Chris Gayle made a name for themselves by beautifully fusing untold havoc with stunning consistency. Both openers, the former converted from a middle-order practitioner, signed off with two Test triple tons apiece – with only the great Don Bradman and Brian Lara for company in that exclusive club of four – to reiterate that aggressive batting need not be at the expense of sustained masterpieces.

Having grown up watching the deeds of these two stalwarts, among others, Abhishek Sharma has now burst forth as a modern-day six-hitting behemoth against whom the margin for error is miniscule and to whom clearing the boundary boards is little more than child’s play.

Abhishek is now 26, still some way short of hitting his peak as a batter. Internationally, he figures in only one format and it is only a matter of time before he is allowed to spread his wings and dot the 50-over landscape too with spectacular edifices. But even in that one limited-overs format, he has showcased a penchant for the bold and the beautiful that is impossible to miss.

Numerous batters who have failed to tickle the scorers in their first international innings have had a stellar career, not least the legendary G.R. Vishwanath, who followed up nought in the first innings of his debut Test against Australia in Kanpur in 1969 with 137 of the best in the second dig. Abhishek’s international career too got off to the most inauspicious of beginnings – he fell for a second-ball duck against Zimbabwe in Harare in July 2024 – but the very next day, he made the world sit up and take notice by smashing a 47-ball century against the same opponents, now thoroughly shell-shocked.

It was evident even at that early stage that this was a special talent that needed to be encouraged rather than fettered, that was best left to its own devices so that he could learn from his mistakes and polish the rough edges instead of being instructed to redefine his high-risk approach. Abhishek took some time in striking the right balance between all-out attack and judiciousness in shot-selection, but once he found the magic formula, he has been an unstoppable force at the highest level.

Abhishek has played 58 T20I innings, which is a fairly reasonable sample size. Despite taking the fight to the bowlers, he has blasted three hundreds and 12 half-centuries. Despite his propensity to hit the ball in the air, he averages 33.17. And because he loves dismantling attacks and bruising egos, he has been able to strike at an extraordinary 194.55, laced with 182 fours and 126 sixes.

Every year since its inception, the Indian Premier League rewards the highest scorer of the season with the Orange Cap. In so many ways, that is incongruous because T20 cricket is seldom about quantum. It is about impact, it’s about the value of the runs made. Given that eight-ball 25s are seen as being more crucial than 35-ball half-centuries, strike-rate would appear to be a logical route to deciding the significance of a batter to his team’s fortunes, but strike-rate alone can’t be the criterion if it rewards only cameos and disregards more meaningful contributions.

Various quarters have advocated using average and strike-rate in tandem to decide the worth of a batter. The former is a marker of consistency, the latter a pointer to explosiveness. In Abhishek’s case, combining the average and the strike-rate in T20Is will give him a whopping total of 227.72. Now, while that is just a number, it is a more accurate reflection of the kind of havoc he can wreak. Abhishek’s latest epic came on Thursday night at the National capital’s Arun Jaitley Stadium. In the last of three T20Is that Afghanistan hosted against India in India last Thursday, Abhishek’s most unforgiving avatar was on full view. In a mere 30 deliveries, he raced to his third T20I century, a good 19 months after his previous ton, against England in Mumbai in February 2025.

The hundred included nine fours and 10 sixes – 96% of his runs came in boundaries – and by the time he was dismissed, he had added one more six in his final score of 108, off a ridiculous 34 balls. It is the fastest T20I hundred against a full-member nation, the fastest ton internationally in the 20-over game by a batter from a full-member country.

Quips that Abhishek defeated the Afghans by 14 runs weren’t just cute. They aptly illustrated the full weight of his dominance against a bowling group that is pedestrian by no stretch of the imagination. Afghanistan might be a little undercooked when it comes to batting in the topmost echelons, but as a bowling unit, they hardly suffer in comparison. Rashid Khan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi form a formidable quartet, but Abhishek left them quivering in their collective boots, waiting for and ruthlessly punishing any indiscretion in length or direction with the most scything, punitive of willows.

In the two preceding matches of the series at the same venue, Abhishek had reeled off scores of 82 (32b) and 39 (19b) respectively. His lowest strike-rate (205.26) came in game two, sandwiched between similar efforts of 256.25 and 317.64, the latter killing any competitive interest in the dead rubber just a quarter of the way into the no-contest.

It was Abhishek at his majestic best, unhurried and unflustered, using a strong base as his ally and carefully eschewing the premeditation that has left many a batter horribly out of position. Abhishek seldom uses exaggerated feet movement whilst waiting for the bowler to deliver the ball, nor does he often seek recourse to the unconventional such as the reverse-scoop or a switch hit.

His areas of preference are in front of square rather than behind it. A beautiful bat-swing with the willow on the downward curve can be mesmerising and because Abhishek strikes the ball cleanly and down the ground, it’s more than likely that he will forever be one step ahead of the opposition. The effortlessness with which he sends the ball soaring deep into the stands is audaciously breathtaking in its simplicity and for the debilitating (for the bowlers) outcome from which there is no recovery.

The very nature of the T20 beast is such that it is almost an antidote to consistency. The consensus is that opening batters are best placed to stack up all the records, and there is no arguing with that because, after all, they are in a position to play more deliveries than those succeeding them in the batting order. But the propensity to push the envelope manifests itself in greater risk-taking when the field restrictions are in place, which automatically brings with it the threat of courting cheap dismissals.

Conservatism has been thrown out of the window a long time back. India are the leaders, in a manner of speaking, in setting the tone, having woken up to the demands of the format a little later than some others, and have now meticulously pieced together an amazing set of destroyers with Abhishek as the primary wrecking ball. The Afghanistan series saw him at his fiercely consistent best. He had a reasonably forgettable T20 World Cup; three ducks at the start were only marginally offset by a blazing half-century in the final, but he seems to have rediscovered his mojo now, which is an excellent sign with the Asian Games gold medal defence now exactly a week away.

Furious competition

Abhishek will be keen to show that there is more to him than just a 20-over marauder. There is furious competition for top-order places in the 50-over setup, with someone like Yashasvi Jaiswal, who has two hundreds in his last three ODI innings, struggling to break through. Abhishek’s List A (domestic 50-over) record isn’t trifling – he averages 33.78 while striking at 100.18 in 68 innings – but while he will be keen to evolve as a multi-format performer, he won’t lose any sleep over his longer-version future.

For now, his calling is in T20s and that’s where he will try to maximise his efficacy and get the team off to the kind of starts they have come to take for granted. He won’t be fazed by the fact that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is breathing down his neck, or that there are other acknowledged ball-bashers aspiring for higher honours. Abhishek has found his Zen state — India’s pride, the rest of the world’s envy.