What makes Abhishek Sharma such a dangerous T20 batter? According to Kane Williamson, Abhishek's former captain at Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), it's the ability to change his shots at the last moment and hit all around the ground with power.
"He has got a great bat swing and is a natural timer of the ball," Williamson told ESPNcricinfo. "He has got that gift of power but it's not through brute force. It is through timing the ball and playing all around the ground, which is a superpower in a lot of ways. It's a little bit like Heinrich Klaasen. I mean different with the brute strength but the ability to change your options and score pretty much all around the ground. Changing your shot at the last minute - because you're not overhitting - is a skill that not many have."
Abhishek had a successful IPL 2024 where he scored 484 runs in 16 innings at a strike rate of 204.21 and formed a scary opening partnership with Travis Head. He carried on in the same manner after making his India debut later that year and has two hundreds, an average of 33.43 and a strike rate of 193.84 after 17 T20Is.
Williamson says Abhishek's talent was evident from the time SRH traded him in from Delhi Capitals (then Delhi Daredevils) ahead of IPL 2019, even though he had played only three IPL games till then.
"I think there were a few guys who were kind of under Yuvraj Singh's wings," Williamson said. "Abhi was one of them and Shubman [Gill] was another. So clearly there was an identification of talent.
"Sometimes in the IPL, it's quite difficult to have a long pathway for a young player. But yeah, a real masterstroke obviously now bearing fruit with Abhi being one of the most dangerous T20 batters in the world."
And what was Williamson's first impression of him?
"He was a really jovial character, sort of happy-go-lucky who took the game on. A lot of confidence as well that you do see in some of these young kind of superstar-type mould players.
"A keen trainer, he would come in and whack and lose as many balls by hitting them as far as he could. At that younger age, there's a real keenness to get involved as much as you can and that was Abhi as well in those early stages at SRH."
Right now, Abhishek is seen as more of a T20 specialist but Williamson feels he can adjust his game to suit Test cricket as well.
"Clearly a strength of his is striking the ball which lends itself to white-ball cricket but I still think he has a very good technique as well," Williamson said. "So I don't know if he will just take that one route. I'm sure he has aspirations to play Test cricket for India, which you know is often the ultimate achievement. I think he can adjust his game. It's clean, it's not brute. It's picking the ball and playing it on merit.
"He has just got so many dimensions to his game, which comes with that little bit of maturity. He has always had the natural bat swing and the ball-striking [ability], that youthful exuberance. But to channel that and hit the ball to all areas, taking on the best bowlers in the world, so that takes courage as well.
"Often when you come in as a young player, you might have the skillset, but there's that curiosity, you know, are you good enough? Some of the questions that you have in the back of your mind when you're exposed to a standard of cricket you haven't necessarily played before. But now he has such clarity on the game plan and how he wants to approach his cricket.
"The high side is so high and he's continuing to push the boundaries of his game, and I think for any player in the world, that's what it's about. It's about trying to get better and as you get a little bit older and you have a role that you're happy with, then the experience comes into play, the decision-making comes into play, which we're seeing now."