IPL 2025 – SRH v PBKS; Audacity and skill, served in Abhishek Sharma style

Whether Abhishek Sharma is in form or not, you don’t get up from your seat if he’s batting. Whether he’s had a string of failures or lots of successes, you can’t tear your eyes away. Because every ball is an adventure. He can score a total of 51 runs in five matches, and then come and blast 141 off 55 balls to help Sunrisers Hyderabad hunt down a target of 246 without even going to the last over. Abhishek’s pulverising century was undoubtedly the innings of IPL 2025, and is likely to hold that mantle even though the tournament is only a third of the way through.

We have never seen anything quite like Abhishek Sharma, and there hasn’t been an innings quite like his 141 against Punjab Kings either. He was dropped twice, caught once off a no-ball, skied the ball into no-man’s land twice – and still carried on batting on turbocharge. He hit sixes like he was in a videogame, invented new areas of scoring because the Punjab bowlers tried to cut down his favourite zones, and even had a note in his pocket to hold up saying, ‘This one is for Orange Army’ when he reached his hundred.

And that still doesn’t even half-describe just how much of a thrilling ride his innings was.

The Orange Army note

Abhishek had written that note when he woke up on Saturday (April 12) morning. This was not him tempting fate, rather it was the inner belief that all champions have about doing well, no matter what has happened before.

“To be honest I had written it today itself,” he said after the game. “Usually, I wake up and write something. So I just got a random thought that if I do something today, that will be for the Orange Army. I thought today was my day… The message I wrote, I thought if it’s my day I’m going to dedicate to the Orange Army and to Hyderabad.”

Abhishek revealed that he did feel the pressure of low scores, but the team environment fostered by captain Pat Cummins and co meant neither his own lack of runs nor the team’s lack of wins was allowed to get to him.

The support from Suryakumar Yadav and Yuvraj Singh

The Sunrisers had a break of six days before their game against Punjab. But Abhishek couldn’t spend that downtime reflecting, practicing or chilling. He spent most of it lying sick in bed. But while he was ill, two people in particular were a source of constant strength and support: his mentor and his India captain.

“I was sick for four days, I had a temperature,” Abhishek revealed. “But I feel very grateful to have people like Yuvraj Singh and Suryakumar Yadav around me. They were the ones who were continuously calling me, because they knew that I can do something like this.

“But still as an individual, any player starts doubting himself. But the thing that was with me was that it was pretty much clear that they believed in me. And when people like them believe in you, you obviously start believing again.”

The innings

Any Abhishek innings that lasts longer than a dozen balls will have moments of jaw-dropping awe, because that is the way he plays. In this knock though, he dialled it up a notch. He was forced to, because despite what the scoreboard suggests, Punjab’s bowlers came at him with a plan, trying to choke him on the offside by bowling there and keeping boundary riders there.

So Abhishek just started moving across his stumps and lapped and pulled balls. They wanted him to play towards point and cover, and he was hitting them behind square on the legside.

“If you’ve seen me close enough I never play anything behind the wicket, but still I was trying a few shots because they had a pretty good plan for us, outside off,” he explained while accepting his Player of the Match award. “So I just wanted to invent a few shots, which I think was very easy on this pitch. The bounce and the size (of the boundary) on one side really helped us.”

He had a fever. He had words of encouragement from people who matter. He had a supportive team environment. And he had the audacious skill to play all-new shots. Those ingredients combined together could have ended up as a disaster – but when they combined for Abhishek Sharma, they resulted in an innings for the ages, and a revitalising of his team’s chances in IPL 2025.