T20 World Cup: Abhishek Sharma aims for Wankhede encore after brief yet targeted net session

Mumbai: Two hours into the Indian team's main net session ahead of the T20 World Cup semifinal, Abhishek Sharma walked out to bat with a strong purpose and fond memories of the Wankhede.

It was exactly one year ago that Abhishek had smashed a 54-ball 135 against England, India's opponents for the all important semifinal on Thursday.

The southpaw ended his barren run in the tournament with a 55 against Zimbabwe but he remains far from his belligerent best.


After rolling his arm over for a bit, Abhishek sauntered into the nets under the watchful eyes of batting coach Sitanshu Kotak.

After Kotak's instruction to a barrage of net bowlers, Abhishek began his session against the spinners. It was off-spin straightaway, considering his struggles against the ball turning away from him.

A leg-spinner also bowled in tandem and so did Arshdeep Singh. To practice against off-spin, Tilak Varma also rolled his arm over for Abhishek after a lengthy batting session.

All 15 squad members turn up

All the 15 squad members turned up for the session that was delayed by an hour due to the lunar eclipse. The players looked in good spirits and also giving him company during the warm up was head coach Gautam Gambhir.

The pitch too attracted plenty of attention two days from the high-stakes game as it sported a generous covering of grass that is likely to be shaved substantially on match day.

The highlights of the session included a series of toe crushing yorkers from Arshdeep Singh.

Star all-rounder Hardik Pandya was mainly involved in range hitting and he batted for more than two hours. The likes of Tilak and Ishan Kishan batted for more than an hour, facing both pace and spin in equal measure.

Tilak employed the slog sweeps against Kuldeep Yadav while clearing the straight boundary off Varun Chakaravarthy.

Lead pacer Jasprit Bumrah preferred a spot bowling session to prepare himself for the big game.

India are unlikely to tinker with their playing eleven, having found the right combination in the last two games by drafting in Sanju Samson at the top of the order alongside Abhishek to break the predictability of a left-handed top three.