Apart from his half-century against Zimbabwe, he has disappointed in most of the matches. His failure against the West Indies in the last match put pressure on the Indian team. The good thing is that Sanju Samson handled the Indian innings in that match, otherwise the result could have been worse. Many former cricketers have also started raising questions due to Abhishek’s series of failures. But there are three strong reasons why it is difficult to leave him out of the starting XI.

Abhishek Sharma’s record against India’s opponents England in the semi-finals is quite good. The 25-year-old batsman scored 279 runs at a strike rate of 219.68 in five matches against England. This includes a century and a half-century. His century against England came at the Wankhede Stadium. India won that match by a huge margin of 150 runs.

Abhishek plays a vital role in India’s offensive strategy

In the last two years under Gautam Gambhir and led by Suryakumar Yadav, the Indian team has been playing cricket with an aggressive mindset. Abhishek Sharma has played an important role in this type of game. He started attacking the opposition from the very first ball. During this period he scored 1297 runs in 37 innings at a strike rate of 194.45, including two centuries and eight fifties.

Abhishek can turn the match even with the ball

Abhishek Sharma can turn the tide of the match not only with batting but also with the ball. Skipper Suryakumar Yadav used him intelligently when needed. As a left-arm spinner, he took six wickets in 18 innings for the country at an economy rate of 8.83. His best bowling performance was taking two wickets with three runs in one match. His stats are even stronger in domestic cricket.