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Former Zimbabwe cricketer and current Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) coach Andy Flower has said that the century scored by Abhishek Sharma in the second T20I has intensified the competition for the top-order spots, which makes the game interesting and is good for Indian cricket.
After a duck in his debut game, the left-handed batter fired all cylinders towards his way to a 47-ball 100 against Zimbabwe in the second T20I on Sunday, which consisted of seven fours and eight sixes. His knocks along with powerful contributions from Ruturaj Gaikwad (77*) and Rinku Singh (48*) pushed India to 234/2 in their 20 overs. Later India, led by Mukesh Kumar (3/37) and Avesh Khan (3/15) bundled out Zimbabwe for 134 runs in 18.4 overs. Abhishek was chosen as the 'Player of the Match' for his knock. Speaking on Sony Sports, Andy said, "Well, we have got (Yashasvi) Jaiswal still coming into the series, have not we? So that sort of competition is exactly what the Indian selectors and all the Indian followers are looking for. It makes it really interesting and it's great for the Indian game if they have got lots of options like that." Jaiswal, Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube, part of the ICC T20 World Cup-winning Indian squad, will be joining the team ahead of the third T20I, which takes place on Wednesday. Andy said that Abhishek should be confident after a great Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 and getting a century for India in only his second international game. "It is really important to get those runs as a young player because confidence and self-belief are so important to your chance of doing well. So I am very happy for him and I am looking forward to seeing more of him in this series," Flower elaborated. Former India opener Abhinav Mukund was also happy that the young batter did not tinker around with his game after a failure on his debut. "He did not try and do anything different from what he does at the domestic level," he said. "I know the IPL is a very, very good and a high-standard league but international cricket is a different ball game altogether. He has come here and has done the same thing that we have seen back home time and again, and he has got a hundred to boot in international cricket," Mukund observed. (ANI)
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