Anil Kumble Urges Abhishek Sharma to Balance Aggressive Batting and Longevity

New Delhi, 20. 3: Former Indian captain and coach Anil Kumble believes that young opener Abhishek Sharma had to learn to strike a fine balance between batting smoke and staying at the crease. Citing an example, he notes that Virender Sehwag achieved success in his career by maintaining this balance perfectly. The 25-year-old is now regarded as one of the most explosive batters in the top order. But he fails to convert starts into substantial scores. A shortcoming that is gradually becoming his weakness. Kumble said that Sehwag also tried to play a big shot every ball early on, but with time he learned to control the pace of his innings better. He also mentioned that Sehwag could play a long innings even while maintaining a 140-150 strike rate. According to Kumble, Abhishek had to understand that just scoring quick runs was not enough, playing longer innings and extending his innings was equally important as he cited the example of Abhishek Samson, who could easily cross the 50-run mark if he played 20 balls.