Abhishek Sharma joins Virat Kohli in unique list

Abhishek Sharma has had an eventful start to his T20I career. The left-hander got out for a duck on his debut against Zimbabwe but responded with a stunning century in the second T20I. 

Abhishek smashed seven fours and eight maximums in his 47-ball 100 and it looked like he had made that opening slot his own, at least for a while. However, with Yashasvi Jaiswal returning into the mix in the third T20I on July 10 (Wednesday), the 23-year-old was demoted to No.3.

As a result, Abhishek became only the second cricketer in T20I history (full member) to be demoted immediately after scoring a century as an opener. The other is Virat Kohli, who recently announced his retirement from the format after winning the 2024 T20 World Cup. 

Kohli slammed 122* in the last match of the 2022 Asia Cup against Afghanistan but returned to No.3 in the home series against Australia. He got out for just 2, and just like Kohli, the demotion didn’t work for Abhishek either.  

The left-hander walked out to bat after Yashasvi Jaiswal fell to Sikandar Raza after adding 67 runs in 8.1 for the opening wicket with Shubman Gill. Abhishek got a boundary off Wellington Masakadza in the 10th over but got out to Raza in the very next over.

Abhishek scored 10 before hitting one straight to the fielder at deep mid-wicket. The ploy of using Abhishek at No.3 clearly didn’t work in India’s favour.

Even in the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL), 392 of Abhishek’s total 484 runs came as an opener, and he got those runs at an average of 30.15 and a strike rate of 202.1.

Overall, this is the sixth time in T20Is that an opener has batted at a different position after hitting a century. 

Apart from Kohli and Abhishek, Awais Ahmed (Spain), Sabawoon Davizi (Czech Republic), Faheem Nazir (Czech Republic) and Vinoo Balakrishnan (Botswana) are the other four batters to receive a similar treatment after scoring a ton in their previous innings.

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