Pakistan Legend Hails Abhishek Sharma: ‘Looked Like He Was Playing In Nets’ | Cricket News

Former Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq was all praise for Indian opener Abhishek Sharma for his fiery half-century in the 2025 Asia Cup Super Four clash on Sunday. Misbah said that it looked like Abhishek was ‘playing in the nets’ with the way he didn’t take any pressure from the big match, ‘calmly’ taking on the best Pakistani bowlers, which ‘disrupted’ the Men in Green’s bowling plans.

Abhishek scored 74 off 39, the quickest and the highest knock of the match. He took on Shaheen Shah Afridi with a six on the first ball and just never looked back. Though he was dropped once and got a bit of luck otherwise, too, he hit six fours and five sixes and set the perfect platform for India’s innings.

“The kind of skill level and temperament he has is amazing,” Misbah told PTV Sports. “It did not look like he was under pressure. Looked like he was playing in the nets. When the ball lands in the zone, he just calmly sends it away. The most important thing is that he always tries to take on the main bowler to put them under pressure. That really disrupts the team,” he added.

“The main weapon for a fast bowler is the hard length. But if there is width, then you are punished. Shaheen tried hitting those hard lengths and Abhishek did respect those. But once the ball went short or full, he just made room and smacked it,” Misbah explained.

The ex-batter was also criticial of how Pakistani bowlers, especially Faheem Ashraf, bowled to the Indian left-hander.

“I didn’t understand Faheem’s bowling,” he said. “He kept mid-off up and bowled over the wicket, across him. We talk about matchups and it’s clear that you can’t bowl that across to Abhishek (on these pitches). The kind that ends up outside off stump. That too with an old ball. He will hit you. You have to try to come around the stumps and get the ball to finish on the stumps. Have protection there with deep midwicket square-leg. And do your variations from there. And Faheem was hit for boundaries over mid-off. That’s Abhishek’s strengths. He doesn’t leave that against the new ball, against 140kmph+ pace bowlers even.”