Abhishek Sharma has been named Wisden’s Leading Twenty20 Cricketer in the World for 2025. Abhishek Mukherjee’s piece on Sharma originally appeared in the 2026 edition of Wisden Cricketer’s Almanack.
In 2025, Abhishek Sharma became the first to score over 1,000 T20 runs at more than two a ball. The record was on the cards: by striking at 202, he improved on his own world record of 198, set the previous year.
From 793 balls in 2025, he hit 158 fours and 108 sixes – more than two boundaries an over. Such high-risk batting did not prevent him from averaging 41, despite just one not-out in 40 innings. Only three times did he face more than 50 balls, reaching 135 on each occasion. “I do not think much, and go with the flow,” he said. “If it is in my range, even if it is the first ball, I go for it.” Perhaps that explains why, partly to the affectionate disappointment of his mentor, Yuvraj Singh, he is unlikely to remain unbeaten in a T20 innings.
For India, he smashed 859 runs at a strike-rate of 193; no one has scored as many, so quickly, in a calendar year. Against England in Mumbai, he hit India’s second-fastest hundred (from 37 balls), and their most sixes in an innings (13). Facing 20 per cent of all balls bowled to India, Abhishek scored 27 per cent of their runs. By way of comparison with other formats, Viv Richards made 26 per cent of West Indies’ Test runs in 1976, and Sachin Tendulkar 23 per cent of India’s ODI runs in 1998 – both records. It was hardly surprising that Abhishek ended the year at the top of the T20 rankings. A rating of 931, reached in September, was the highest yet attained by any batter.
Yet his brilliance was not restricted to internationals. His 439 runs in the 2025 IPL came at a strike-rate of 193 – only Nicholas Pooran scored more at a quicker pace – while his 55-ball 141 against Punjab Kings was the season’s only score above 120. Abhishek also had an incredible run for Punjab in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: his 304 runs came at a strike-rate of 249. The highlight was a 52-ball 148 against Bengal, studded with 16 sixes.
Because of BCCI restrictions, his only T20 outings outside India were the Asia Cup in the UAE, where he was player of the tournament, and a five-match series in Australia, where he received the series award. He became the quickest to reach 1,000 T20 international runs, in 528 balls, comfortably breaking Suryakumar Yadav’s 573-ball record.
Such a sequence is often the outcome of advice from the giants. Brian Lara, his head coach at Sunrisers Hyderabad, advised him to take up golf to improve his bat swing. Shikhar Dhawan explained the importance of grounded drives to supplement the big hits. The plans to take down specific bowlers were prepared during long conversations with Travis Head, the other half of the “Travishek” portmanteau at Sunrisers.
There is one thing missing in his T20 career – a trophy. But there was plenty of time for that. After all, he is only 25.
