A Video Slide Helped Abhishek Sharma Recover From 3 Straight Zeroes At T20 World Cup. Here's How
Team India captain Suryakumar Yadav and middle-order batter Tilak Varma revealed, after their dominant 72-run win in the Super 8s against Zimbabwe in the T20 World Cup 2026
Team India captain Suryakumar Yadav and middle-order batter Tilak Varma revealed, after their dominant 72-run win in the Super 8s against Zimbabwe in the T20 World Cup 2026 on Thursday, that the team had conducted a video analysis of their performances over the past year and took "a lot of positivity" from it. Before the Zimbabwe match, India's batting had yet to fire as a complete unit. While there were contributions from one or two players in the order, the rest seemed inconsistent.
Some batters, especially Abhishek Sharma, appeared to be getting out in similar ways repeatedly against off-spinners. Before the Zimbabwe match, Abhishek had scored just 15 runs in four matches in the tournament and had also registered three consecutive ducks.
Tilak Varma, batting at number three, had been struggling in the games before Zimbabwe, maintaining a strike rate of just over 118. He found it difficult to play his natural aggressive game and was unable to deliver a substantial innings.
The biggest blow came when India's entire batting lineup collapsed against South Africa in both teams' first Super 8s clash at Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi Stadium. Chasing 188, India were bowled out for just 111 in 18.5 overs, losing the match by 76 runs.
In the match against Zimbabwe, India's entire batting lineup fired brilliantly. All six batters who took the crease scored at strike rates above 150, with Sanju Samson being the lowest scorer with 24 runs. Abhishek made 55 off 30 balls, Ishan Kishan 38 off 24, Suryakumar Yadav 33 off 13, Hardik Pandya 50 off 23, and Tilak Varma 44 off 16, collectively powering India to 254/4 in their 20 overs after batting first. This was the first-ever instance of every member of a batting top six scoring 20+ runs at a strike rate of 150+ in T20 World Cup history.
India eventually won the match by 72 runs, with Zimbabwe managing only 184.
After the match, Suryakumar Yadav said the team's video analyst had prepared a detailed slide showing each player's performance over the past year. He added that the team drew positivity from it, focusing on collective contributions rather than past failures, and said it was heartening to see all batters-from the top order to number seven-contribute.
"I think we wanted to leave everything behind. We didn't think too much about what we did in the league stage or what we did in the last game in Ahmedabad. But we had a slide which our video analyst had made for all the batters and bowlers, showing what we did over the year. We saw that slide and took a lot of positivity from that. And when we came here, with contributions from all the batters from top to number seven, it was heartening to see," Suryakumar said during the post-match presentation.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Tilak Varma echoed the captain, saying the team drew confidence from reviewing a year of T20 performances through video analysis. He added that with a positive mindset and an intention to enjoy the game, the team approached the match aggressively, regardless of pitch conditions.
"As we discussed yesterday, just before the game, we would go in with a good mindset. And we have seen our past year of T20 cricket, how we played. So after seeing that video, everyone got confidence, and that's what we discussed as a team-that we just enjoy, put a smile on, and go all out," Tilak said, as quoted by the ICC website.
India will next take on West Indies on Sunday in a do-or-die clash, with the winner advancing to the T20 World Cup 2026 semifinals. South Africa have already secured a spot from Super 8 Group 1.
India Cricket Team