He was adjudged as the Player of the Series in the Asia Cup 2025.
Former all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin has opened up on his top choices for the year gone by. He spoke about the Player of the Year for India, the best cricketing moments of 2025, and much more.
The 25-year-old has thoroughly changed India’s approach in the 20-over format with his consistent blazing opening knocks. Since his debut in 2024, Abhishek had recorded average stats in T20Is, scoring 256 runs in 12 matches, striking at 171.81.
But the batter enjoyed a memorable five-match home series against England early in the year, notching up 279 runs. His heroics included a century and a fifty-plus score at an explosive strike rate of 219.68.
“It’s not just the arrival of Abhishek Sharma, it’s probably the arrival of India’s next generation X-factor player. 2025’s best player from India, I think, has to be Abhishek Sharma. He has reimagined India’s powerplay batting,” stated Ashwin on his YouTube channel.
The opener also carried on the blistering form in the ACC Asia Cup 2025. Abhishek’s 314 runs in seven fixtures at an aggressive strike rate of 200 saw him rewrite the record for the most runs in a single T20 Asia Cup edition. But the southpaw’s 50-over stats are underwhelming, which include 2,188 runs in 68 matches, with only four tons, averaging just 34.18.
But following his back-to-back cameos in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26, Ashwin believes that the Punjab batter should also feature in India’s ODI squad. Abhishek recently put up 48 runs off 45 balls against Maharashtra, followed by a 26-ball 30 facing Uttarakhand in India’s domestic 50-over tournament.
“Abhishek Sharma has truly been exceptional. I would love to see him in the other format of the white-ball cricket. I think the red-ball credentials needs to be worked upon. Abhishek Sharma will be probably India’s Men’s team Player of the Year,” opined the all-rounder.
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The all-rounder also discussed three significant events of cricket in 2025. He placed South Africa’s World Test Championship (WTC) 2025 victory at the top. The Proteas had defeated the reigning champions, Australia, in the final to win their second ICC title.
Next, he picked India’s dominating and victorious ICC Champions Trophy campaign but went on to replace it with The Oval’s magnificent comeback to level the Test series on English soil. The inaugural Anderson-Tendulkar series had witnessed an intense display of character and grit as every fixture of the five-match series went down to the final day.
At third, Ashwin kept South Africa’s recent feat of registering a Test clean sweep in India in 25 years. He also noted England’s latest Ashes 2025 Boxing Day Test win as one of the greatest moments of the year.
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