Legendary West Indies cricketer Brian Lara heaps praise on Abhishek Sharma

Brian Lara and Abhishek Sharma. Pics/Satej Shinde, AFP

Former West Indies captain and batting icon Brian Lara, 56, reckoned India T20 specialist and hard-hitting opener Abhishek Sharma is a very special cricketer with amazing talent. "Abhishek is something very special. I think [former India batter] Yuvraj Singh has had a big influence on him, his bat speed, the way he hits the ball, the way he hits through the ball," said Lara on the sidelines of the CEAT Cricket Rating Awards on Tuesday.

Abhishek, 25, emerged as the top run-getter with 314 runs in India's recent T20 Asia Cup-winning campaign in Dubai.

Lara, who was head coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad's (SRH) in 2023, said he has known Abhishek closely. "I know Abhishek from SRH [days]. I was there during COVID time, maybe three or four years ago. And he's an amazing young player. And what's amazing is that he would give me a call because even though with he's having success in T20 cricket, and maybe even 50-over cricket, he still wants to find a way to get into the Test team, which is great for someone like that, to think, that [Test cricket] is very special. So, he's someone who I know and I've grown to be very fond of his cricket. And it's great to see that he's sort of improved and gone into a different level," added Lara, who played 131 Tests and 299 ODIs for the West Indies accumulating a whopping 11,953 and 10,405 runs respectively.