Abhishek Sharma breaks mentor Yuvraj Singh's huge record with blazing knock in IND vs ENG 2025 1st T20I

Young Team India opener Abhishek Sharma starred with 79 off 34 as the Men in Blue hammered England by seven wickets in the first T20I at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday, January 22. Thanks to the southpaw's exploits, India chased down 133 in just 12.5 overs to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

Bowling first after winning the toss, the hosts did a great job to clean up the Englishmen for 132 as leg-spinner Varun Chakravarthy claimed 3-23, while Arshdeep Singh, Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel picked up two wickets each.

In the chase, Abhishek and Sanju Samson (26 off 20) added 41 for the first wicket in just 4.2 overs. After India lost Samson and Suryakumar Yadav (0) in one over to Jofra Archer, Abhishek took charge and clobbered five fours and eight sixes in his belligerent knock, which put paid to England's faint hopes in the game.

Apart from lifting India to a memorable win, Abhishek also broke a huge record of mentor Yuvraj Singh by hitting eight sixes in his knock. He's now on the top of the list among Indian batters with most sixes in an innings against England in T20Is. In fact, the 24-year-old also holds the record for most sixes smashed by a batter in an India vs England T20I.

Yuvraj had clobbered seven sixes in his 16-ball 58 in the 2007 T20 World Cup clash in Durban, which included six maximums in one over against Stuart Broad. Three England batters have also hit seven sixes in an innings in a T20I against India - Eoin Morgan (2014), Jason Roy (2018) and Alex Hales (2022). Indian captain Suryakumar struck six sixes against England in Nottingham in 2022.

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"I wanted to express myself but special mention to captain and coach" - Abhishek Sharma

Abhishek reflected on his innings and said that he just wanted to express himself out in the middle. He also praised skipper Suryakumar and coach Gautam Gambhir for giving freedom to youngsters.

"I wanted to express myself, but special mention to captain (Suryakumar Yadav) and coach (Gambhir), the freedom they have given us as youngsters is tremendous. Never seen an environment like this, express yourself, hit your shots, even from the first ball." the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) batter said, as quoted by PTI.

Asked about his batting plans, the southpaw revealed that he wanted to stay deep in the crease and use the extra pace of both Archer and Mark Wood.

"I practiced my trigger movements before the match, I knew they (England bowlers) would bowl short and check my patience. I executed my plans very well," Abhishek said.

Abhishek has featured in 13 T20Is and has 335 runs at an average of 27.91 and a strike rate of 183.06, with one hundred and two fifties.

The second India-England T20I will be played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Saturday, January 25.