![Afghanistan's batting folded for 94 in just [missing number] overs to lose by 127 runs](https://zaobaoindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/015025_fd810b2735dfb6b7.webp)
Abhishek Sharma (BCCI Photo)
He finished with figures of 3/25 in four overs. Captain Shreyas Iyer chose to give him the new ball like Pandya has been doing in T20 cricket for India. The first one didn’t look incisive, but Reddy came back later in the innings with a clear plan of varying the pace and length.
The 11 sixes and nine boundaries off Abhishek’s bat were enough to break the spirits of the Afghanistan team. Afghanistan’s batting folded for 94 in just [missing number] overs to lose by 127 runs, bringing their first ‘home’ series against India to an end with a 3-0 scoreline in favour of India. He wasn’t going to let this opportunity go to waste in re-establishing himself as India’s undisputed first-choice opener in T20Is even as the buzz around 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi only keeps growing. He finished the series with 209 runs off 85 balls.
The Afghan players clearly lacked energy on the field, having endured heavy poundings in the first two T20Is here this week. It appeared they almost waited for this game to just pass by. But Abhishek wasn’t satiated despite his two whirlwind knocks in the previous two matches. Abhishek’s returns in international cricket haven’t been the best since the T20I World Cup in March. The runs have come at a premium for him. Nitish Kumar Reddy is the pet project for the team management to get him ready as a premier seam-bowling allrounder besides the injury-prone Hardik Pandya.
Having endured a comparatively modest year with the bat in international cricket, Abhishek’s relentless hitting was kind of a throwback to his marauding run with the Indian team before the T20 World Cup in March. On Thursday, he managed just one off four balls with the bat in his only outing in the series. Having pulled him out of the Asian Games team, Reddy’s performance on Thursday night will give the team management a lot of confidence as they start preparing for the ODI World Cup with the ODI series against West Indies later this month.