Abhishek Sharma: IPL’s smiling Buddha who demolishes bowlers | Cricket News
4 min readUpdated: Apr 21, 2026 10:20 PM IST Among all the post-modern openers in the league, Abhishek Sharma inhabits a rarefied space of his own. So much so that he is already making a compelling case to be one of the most destructive openers in IPL history, not so much for his numbers as for the sheer impact he makes and the thrill he promises. He is IPL’s biggest blockbuster, the batsman that stops traffic, that fills stands, that forces people to set their chores aside without a dilemma. He is the smiling Buddha who demolishes bowlers. FOLLOW LIVE | SRH vs DC Raised in the IPL era, the 26-year-old is a fusion of all the legendary openers who had revelled in the IPL stage. He has the six-hitting vigour of Chris Gayle. He hits one maximum every 9.8 balls (as an opener); the Jamaican swiped one six every nine balls. They are different in musculature and methods, but both rely on a sweet and high bat-swing. Like Gayle, he glides down the surface, …
