Jos Buttler has praised opener Abhishek Sharma was in form as the Men in Blues secured a 150-run victory in the fifth and final T20I match of the England tour of India 2025.
England skipper Buttler was surprised to see the young left-hander’s batting saying it was the cleanest he had ever seen.
The 24-year-old cricketer smashed a second-fastest century for India and went on to score 135 runs off 54 deliveries and helped the side to post a massive total against England.
Eventually, India won the match and secured a 4-1 win in the series. Speaking in the post-match conference Buttler said, “I’ve played quite a lot of cricket, and credit to Abhishek Sharma. That’s as clean a ball-striking as I’ve seen.”
“He played fantastically well. We always sit down and think what more could we have done. But some days, you have to give a lot of credit to the opposition. I thought he played brilliantly well.”
Despite their defeat in the series, Buttler drew some positives from the series for England and said his team were commited to playing that kind of cricket and would aim to do better in the future.
“We’re disappointed to lose the series, but we’ve done some things well and some things we want to improve on. We want to keep committing to this style of cricket and execute better.”
“India are a fantastic side, especially at home, and we’re better for the experience, the experience of great crowds like this at the Wankhede. Positives: Some of the guys’ bowling performances – even today, Brydon Carse and Mark Wood were outstanding,” Buttler added.
Abhishek Sharma was in sublime form from the first ball in Mumbai as the left-hander through England’s pacers, prompting skipper Jos Buttler to bring Liam Livingstone in the 5th over to stem the flow of runs.
However, he continued his aggressive batting approach and reached fifty in just 17 balls. He narrowly missed fasted T20I century by an Indian falling just two ball short.
Rohit Sharma had achieved a 35-ball T20I century against Sri Lanka in 2017. Earlier his innings, Abhishek had also registered a 17-ball half century the second fastest by an Indian batsman.
India and England will now shift their focus on the upcoming ODI series which is scheduled to start on February 06 at VCA Stadium.
