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AB de Villiers predicts whether Abhishek Sharma will succeed or fail in IND vs AUS T20Is

Debashis Sarangi

De Villiers predicts Abhishek's performance in Australia [Source: AFP, @CricSubhayan/X]De Villiers predicts Abhishek's performance in Australia [Source: AFP, @CricSubhayan/X]

Former Royal Challengers Bengaluru player and South African skipper AB de Villiers believes Abhishek Sharma will enjoy the Australian conditions. Led by Suryakumar Yadav, India will take on Australia in five T20I matches. While Abhishek Sharma was ignored for the ODI series, the southpaw managed to find a place in India's T20I squad for the tour. Meanwhile, AB de Villiers has predicted whether the left-handed batter can succeed as a batter in Australian conditions. 

AB de Villiers explains how Abhishek will perform on maiden Australia tour

This is the first time Abhishek Sharma will tour Australia with the senior Indian team. Considering the conditions in Australia will be vastly different from those in the subcontinent, Abhishek is expected to face significant challenges as a batter in the upcoming T20I series. 

However, AB de Villiers reckons the bouncy pitches in Australia might actually help Abhishek, who loves to play lofted shots. The former RCB player believes that Abhishek can dominate Australia with his fearless stroke play by getting on top of the bounce. 

Additionally, as De Villiers put it, Abhishek's tendency to clear his front leg and explore scoring opportunities on the on-side could work wonders for him in the series. 

"Abhishek Sharma is in the form of the life, some are saying he is the best opening batter in the world right now in this format. Will be great to see what he can get over there in Australia. I think he will enjoy the conditions because there’s quite a bit of bounce," De Villiers said in his YouTube channel, as quoted by Express Sports. 

"He likes freeing up his arms over the off-side, opening up the blade, covering the point to third man boundary, hitting sixes over there. He can also clear up or open up the leg side as well. All round player, fantastic batter to watch," he added. 

Abhishek has played 24 T20Is, amassing 849 runs at an average of 36.9 and a blistering strike rate of 196.1. Considering his red-hot batting form, the southpaw will undoubtedly be one of the Indian players to watch out for in the Australia series.