The congratulatory messages were still coming in – former teammates, friends across India. Raj Kumar Sharma was answering each one. But his thoughts kept returning to the evening before the final.
His son had scored three consecutive ducks. Then a scratchy ten. Then a fifty against Zimbabwe that steadied things but didn’t fully settle him. The spinners had found him – off stump, leg stump, down the leg, twice. In the semifinal, Will Jacks had him. The tournament was running out of time.
Sharma Sr watched the practice session at Narendra Modi Stadium the day before the final and had a quiet conversation with Abhishek.
“I did not have any major conversations with him after the earlier matches,” he said. “But I told him — Down te up time tan harek player da aunda hai. Ghabrana nahi te jaldi hi eh time vi nikal jauga. Each player sees ups and downs. You don’t have to tremble. This time will also pass.”
He reminded his son of one other thing. You are the world number one T20 batsman. Your abilities have only got you here.
Then he stepped back and waited.
* * *
In the final, hit the fastest fifty in a World Cup knockout match. Twenty-one balls. Forty-eight of his runs came against pacers. Against spinners — the bowlers who had undone him four times in the tournament — he scored three runs from five balls and got out to Rachin Ravindra.
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Since his junior days, Abhishek had been watching three batsmen play spinners — Tendulkar, then Yuvraj, then Rohit. On TV, on his cellphone, whenever he had free time. Yuvraj knew this. Perhaps that’s why the calls felt natural.
Yuvraj Singh had been calling almost daily through the difficult stretch. He and Abhishek would talk batting, talk technique, talk spinners and pacers and plans. Gambhir spoke to him too — the head coach, a left-handed opener himself, who understood the phase from the inside.
“Abhishek has never feared spinners throughout his career,” Sharma Sr said. “Sometimes it’s a matter of seconds to decide the shot and there were very little technical flaws in his technique. He is never shy of taking guidance.”
Abhishek listened to all of them. And then walked out in the final and used none of it consciously — just played.
* * *
The father knows how the celebration will go when Abhishek returns to Amritsar.
“We are blessed to be from the city founded by Guru Ram Das ji, the fourth Guru of the Sikhs,” Sharma Sr said. Abhishek will visit the Golden Temple. Gurudwara Baba Deep Singh Shaheed. The holy shrines of Amritsar.
Three ducks. Then the fastest fifty in a World Cup knockout.
Ghabrana nahi. Eh time vi nikal jauga.
He didn’t have to tremble. The time passed.
