India captain Suryakumar Yadav hinted that Abhishek could be back into the playing XI after recovering from illness due to which he was unavailable for the match against Namibia in Delhi.
“Well, if the Pakistan captain (Salman Agha) wants to see Abhishek bat, then okay we will play him,” Suryakumar said.
Suryakumar’s was a reference to Salman’s response about the opening batter that he would be happy to see him bat in the game.
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“We all know he’s a good player and I really hope he plays tomorrow because we want to play against the best team they have. I hope he is recovering well and can play tomorrow,” the Pakistan captain said on the eve of the Group A clash.
The swashbuckling batter trained on Saturday with the team and hit some big shots. The left-hander showed no signs of weariness while batting at the nets for close to 30 minutes. Abhishek batted against spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy first up, smashing both the spinners to the far corners of Premadasa.
The 25-year-old then shifted to the left-side nets to tackle pacers and did an equally fluent job, carting his teammates and local bowlers with sheer abandon. There was not much foot movement apart from while trying to give a charge against bowlers, but his fast hands and length-judging ability covered for it.
Abhishek played India’s opening fixture against the USA and got out for a first-ball duck.
Against Pakistan, Abhishek has played three T20Is — all in the Asia Cup 2025 — and has scored 110 runs at a strike rate of over 189.
(With inputs from PTI)
Published on Feb 14, 2026
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