England National Cricket Team captain Jos Buttler lauded Abhishek Sharma for his batting masterclass in the fifth T20I at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
However, Jos Buttler denied being shell-shocked by the brutal hitting displayed by Abhishek Sharma during his historic performance on Sunday, February 2.
I thought that’s as clean a ball striking as I’ve seen – Abhishek Sharma
Abhishek Sharma batted with his full potential in the dead-rubber game and entertained the crowd by smashing the English bowlers all over the park.
He shattered several historic records during his knock of 135 runs off 54 balls and his innings was studded with 7 boundaries and 13 maximums.
At the post-match press conference, Jos Buttler said that Abhishek showcased the cleanest hitting he has ever seen and praised him for playing fantastically well.
“Yeah, (we are) obviously disappointed (with the result), they (India) played a fantastic batting innings. I think credit to Abhishek Sharma, I thought that’s as clean a ball striking as I’ve seen, I thought he played fantastically well,” Buttler told the media after the match.
Jos Buttler, meanwhile, denied using the word ‘shell-shocked’ to describe England’s reaction to the brutal assault by the top-order Indian batter.
“We always sit down and think what more could we have done or how we could have stopped him, but some days I think you have to give a lot of credit to the opposition, I thought he played brilliantly well.
“Shellshocked’s not quite the word, I think. It can be difficult sometimes when a player gets on a roll and they play as well as he did,” Buttler said.
Looking back at the last IPL, him and Travis Head were the same at the top of the order for Sunrisers – Jos Buttler
Jos Buttler also recalled how Abhishek Sharma formed a partnership with explosive Aussie batter Travis Head at the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and played attacking cricket from the start. Buttler feels Abhishek brought the same style to the Indian T20I team.
“Looking back at the last IPL, him and Travis Head were the same at the top of the order for Sunrisers (Hyderabad) and obviously he’s brought that into India.”
“He (Abhishek) played a brilliant innings and sometimes you want to credit the opposition. You always think of what more could you do, how could we get him out, how could we slow him down and, but yeah, credit to us for, you know, sticking in there and fighting back and keeping them down to 240 after the start they got,” he said.
Jos Buttler speaks on England’s run-chase
Abhishek Sharma’s sensational batting performance meant that the Men In Blue registered a colossal score of 247 runs. Chasing was always going to be difficult for the visitors, and barring Phil Salt, no batter managed to get going.
The Three Lions had a nightmarish outing as they got bundled out for 97 runs in 10.3 overs despite Phil Salt’s quickfire 55-run knock and lost the match by 150 runs.
Meanwhile, Jos Buttler said that the pitch remained good for batting even in the second innings but they crumbled under pressure.
“I’ve played in a few games like this and it generally goes one of two ways, you either get actually somewhere near or you fall in a heap and today was that day,” he said.
“The way Phil Salt went out there and struck the ball, it was obviously a really good wicket, you needed someone to go with him and one or two guys to catch fire and that’s the way you’re going to chase that down.”
