Asia Cup 2025: 'They were making personal attacks' - Abhishek Sharma reveals on-field spat with Pakistan bowlers

Published - 22 Sept 2025, 10:06 IST | Updated - 22 Sept 2025, 10:13 IST

Abhishek Sharma was at the centre of attraction during the India vs Pakistan clash in the Super Fours match of the ongoing Asia Cup 2025 on Sunday, September 21. Playing at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Abhishek starred in India's chase to bag a Player of the Match for himself. However, this was not the only headline the batting all-rounder made, as his verbal spat with Pakistan's Haris Rauf and Shaheen Afridi also caught the attention.

Starting the chase emphatically, Abhishek hit Shaheen for a six on the first ball. Later, Shaheen fired a few words at him, to which, the Punjab-born responded to his liking. Later, Shubman Gill, his opening partner, also had a go at Shaheen for concentrating more on sledging over actually focussing on his bowling. The things got overly intensified after the same happened between the Indian duo and Haris Rauf during the last over of the powerplay. Abhishek felt that such an altercation could have been avoided, but he had no choice but to respond.

"Personally, I did not like because on every ball, their bowlers were trying to poke at me, launching some personal attacks on me and Shubman [Gill]. So I felt that it was necessary for me to respond to them in my style. Because, this is not how cricket should be played, in my opinion. I was constantly having a word with Shubman that give them a befitting reply after winning the match tonight," Abhishek told Sony Sports Network in a post-match chat.

Gill dazzles against Shaheen as India cruise past Pakistan

India batters engage in war of words with Haris Rauf

Speaking of Abhishek's batting, the 25-year-old was responsible for the bulk of the scoring as India won the match by six wickets. Batting aggressively, the Southpaw smashed 74 runs off just 39 deliveries. His stunning knock was studded with six fours and five humongous sixes into the crowd. In an attempt to keep up with the ante, Abhishek departed in the thirteenth over, but by then, the game was certainly in India's favour as less than 50 runs were required.

With the blistering knock, Abhishek is also the highest run-getter of the season so far, with 173 runs from four innings at a thunderous strike rate of 208.43. However, his latest knock was his first half-century of the marquee event, and he would be hoping to continue the momentum for the upcoming game against Sri Lanka as well, which will be played in Dubai on Thursday.