Mullanpur: Emerging young gun in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Ashutosh Sharma has remarked that it was his dream to play a sweep shot against pacer Jasprit Bumrah and he has been practising it in the nets for a long time.
Mumbai Indians batted first against Punjab Kings on Thursday and posted a challenging total of 192 for 7. Punjab Kings ended up scoring 183 in the end and Ashutosh Sharma played a valiant knock and took the game deep. He amassed 61 runs from just 28 balls and hammered seven sixes. The youngster has been performing consistently in the tournament and it was another brilliant outing for him.
His knock included a sweep shot against Jasprit Bumrah and it was hailed by many. Reflecting on the inventive stroke, the batter said that he has always dreamt of hitting a sweep against Jasprit Bumrah.
"It was my dream to hit a sweep shot off Jasprit Bumrah. I have been practising these shots. It's a game of cricket so it's very common. We have to focus on our process. When I was playing I had the belief to pull off a win," Ashutosh said in the post-match presentation.
Ashutosh has scored 156 runs from four matches so far with an average of 52 and a monstrous strike rate of 205.26 in the cash tournament. Ashutosh revealed his conversation with the Head of Cricket Development, Sanjay Bangar saying that his small statement changed things for him.
"Sanjay [Bangar] sir told me that, 'you're not a slogger; you play proper cricketing shots and you should focus on [honing] that'. It was that small statement and a show of confidence from him that made a huge difference for me and turned my game. I'm now just trying to follow that," he added.
Punjab will look to ink a victory in their next match against Gujarat Titans at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium here on Sunday.
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