Former Indian batter Subramaniam Badrinath reckons Abhishek Sharma’s mentor Yuvraj Singh has told him to forget about red-ball cricket and focus solely on white-ball cricket, especially T20 format. Sharma has been in terrific form in T20Is and he is currently the number one T20I batter in the ICC rankings.

Badrinath reckons that playing aggressively in the shortest format comes naturally to Abhishek Sharma. The southpaw scored a blistering knock of 68 runs off just 20 balls to help India chase down 154 runs in 10 overs in the second T20I against New Zealand.

The left-hander smashed seven fours and five sixes in his whirlwind knock. The youngster completed his fifty off just 14 balls, the second fastest T20I half-century for India after his mentor Yuvraj Singh, who scored a 12-ball fifty against England in the 2007 T20 World Cup.

Badrinath said on Star Sports, “Yuvraj Singh may have helped him a lot technically and tactically. But I feel where he has helped the most is bringing clarity to Abhishek Sharma. The most important thing Yuvraj has seemingly told Abhisek is to forget about red-ball cricket. He has probably told Abhishek to focus only on white-ball cricket, especially T20 cricket, which comes naturally to him. No one could have given him better advice than this.”

The former CSK batter cited Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya’s example regarding recent success while playing only one format.

“In recent cricket, people who are playing only one format are doing exceedingly well. It gives them a lot of clarity on their skill sets. Sometimes when you play multiple formats, the formats get crossed over each other and you get confused. Look at Virat Kohli, he is playing only one format and taking his game to another level. Hardik Pandya is playing only T20 cricket and doing exceedingly well,” he stated.

The fourth T20I between India and New Zealand will be played at Visakhapatnam on Wednesday.