Photo via Hindustan Times

Yuvraj Singh ‘texted’ Abhishek Sharma, a day later he responded with record-breaking century

Abhishek Sharma credited guidance from his mentor Yuvraj Singh after blasting a historic century in the third T20I against Afghanistan in New Delhi. Prior to the match, Yuvraj messaged the 26-year-old left-hander advising him to avoid forcing every delivery and instead rotate strike with singles whenever balls missed his preferred hitting zones.

Heeding that counsel, Abhishek reached triple figures in just 30 balls to establish the quickest T20I hundred ever struck by an ICC Full Member cricketer, eclipsing the previous Indian benchmark set by Rohit Sharma.

The dynamic opener finished with a crucial knock that propelled India to 221 for seven before Nitish Kumar Reddy and Ravi Bishnoi each claimed three wickets to dismiss Afghanistan for 94, sealing a 127-run victory. Having arrived in the series under scrutiny following a difficult tour of Zimbabwe, Abhishek dominated the three fixtures with tally scores of 82, 39, and an explosive finish to accumulate 229 runs across the bilateral contest.