The style with which Vaibhav Suryavanshi has batted brilliantly in IPL 2026 has made all the explosive batsmen look pale in comparison to him. Even the pace of Abhishek Sharma, the most explosive opener of Indian cricket in the last two years, was beginning to seem slow in front of him. But now Abhishek has also reminded everyone that he is still the same dangerous opener and has the ability to bat like Vaibhav. He showed a glimpse of this in the match against Punjab Kings, when Abhishek scored an explosive half-century in just 18 balls.

Hit half century in 18 balls

Sunrisers Hyderabad's star opener batting first against Punjab Kings on Saturday, April 11 in New Chandigarh. Abhishek Sharma He created a crowd with his explosive batting. Abhishek hit 2 sixes and 2 fours in the over of Arshdeep Singh and against Vijaykumar Vaishak, he hit 4 sixes in a single over. On the basis of such aggressive batting, Abhishek completed his half-century in just 18 balls in the fifth over itself.

Abhishek Sharma had hit 5 sixes and 5 fours before reaching his half-century. Even after this their attack continued for some more time. Along with his opening partner Travis Head, he took the team beyond 100 runs in the powerplay itself. However, this time Abhishek could not reach his century and returned to the pavilion after getting out in the 9th over. But by then Abhishek had scored 74 runs in just 28 balls, which included 8 sixes and 5 fours. He and Travis Head together made a blazing start of 120 runs in 8.1 overs.

This change in feet changed the game

But Abhishek did not suddenly return to his old form again, rather he made an important change in his batting stance. Till now Abhishek's trigger moment was very important. He often used to go across on the backfoot. This gave him a lot of success but for some time now he was constantly getting stuck in short balls due to this. But this time he decided to leave this moment and stand still at the crease till the end. This also made his head stable, which is most important for balance. Then he played shots by moving his feet according to the ball. He got the benefit of this and scored his first half-century this season.