- By Namrata Vijay
- Fri, 28 Nov 2025 01:20 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
SMAT 2025: Abhishek Sharma, who is currently the No.1 T20I batter, is representing Punjab in SMAT, and for the second consecutive match, the youngster has had a forgettable outing with the bat. On Friday, while chasing a mammoth target of 208 runs against Haryana, he was dismissed after scoring just six runs in 5 balls.
Anshul Kamboj took his wicket in the third over. Abhishek did hit one four and stitched a partnership of 27 runs for the first wicket with Prabsimran Singh. Singh, who grabbed everyone's attention with his brilliant performances in IPL 2025 while playing for Punjab Kings, also got out early after scoring 20 runs off 10 balls, in which he had hit a four and two sixes.
Abhishek, who is most likely to make it to India's T20I team for the five-match T20I series against South Africa, has been seen struggling in the last 4 innings.
During the series opener of SMAT, he was dismissed after scoring just four runs against Himachal Pradesh, and in the unofficial ODI series against South Africa, he had scored 31, 32, and 11 runs.
He can earn his spot in India's ODI team as well in the upcoming series against the Proteas, but couldn't do so after the chance he got in the A series.
Ruturaj Gaikwad had hit one hundred and as many fifty while playing for India A against South Africa A, and due to this, he is now a part of India's ODI team as Shubman Gill's replacement.
Nishant Sindhu impresses
Since Abhishek Sharma couldn't do much with the bat against Haryana, Nishant Sindhu did impress in the first half. The youngster batted at the No.3 position and scored a gritty knock of 61 runs off 32 balls. He had hit 8 fours and 3 sixes and had built a partnership of 74 runs for the second wicket with skipper Ankit Kumar, who too had scored 51 runs off 26 balls.
Post Nishant's wicket, Ankit stitched a partnership of 62 runs with Yashvardhan Dalal for the third wicket.