Abhishek Sharma IPL 2026: Second IPL Hundred Signals His Evolution as a Complete Batter

Abhishek Sharma IPL Centuries:

1. IPL 2025 - Match 27: SRH beat PBKS by 8 wickets. Abhishek Sharma 141 (55), SR 256.36.
2. IPL 2026 - Match 31: SRH beat DC by 47 runs. Abhishek Sharma 135* (68), SR 198.53.

The scorecards look almost identical at first glance. Two centuries at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. Both ending in SRH totals north of 240. Both resulting in wins by 47 runs or more. Both against quality bowling attacks. Abhishek Sharma's name at the top of each. And yet, put the two innings side by side - his maiden IPL hundred against Punjab Kings in April 2025 and his second against Delhi Capitals in April 2026 - and what emerges is not repetition but revelation.

These are not the same innings. They are not even the same batter. They are a before-and-after portrait of one of T20 cricket's most explosive openers, separated by twelve months of growth, failure, and refinement.

The Raw Numbers Tell Only Half the Story

Let's start with what can be measured. Against PBKS last year, Abhishek scored 141 off 55 balls - 14 fours, 10 sixes, a strike rate of 256.36. His fifty came off 19 balls. His century off 40. It was the sixth-fastest hundred in IPL history at the time, and the highest individual score ever by an Indian in the tournament.

Against DC on Tuesday (April 21), the explosive left-handed batter made 135 not out off 68 balls - 10 fours, 10 sixes, a strike rate of 198.53. Fifty in 25 balls. Century in 47. Still unbeaten at the end of 20 overs, still guiding SRH to a 47-run win.

On paper, the 2025 knock wins. It is bigger, faster, more boundary-laden. Around 82 per cent of Abhishek's runs against PBKS came from boundaries - 116 of his 141. Against DC that figure drops to 74 per cent, meaning more running between the wickets, more calculated accumulation between the big hits.

But raw numbers have never been a fair judge of batting quality. Context matters. So does craft. And in both departments, the 2026 innings has a compelling case to make.

The Pitch Changes Everything

The Hyderabad surface against PBKS in 2025 was, by all accounts, a belter. Punjab Kings had raced to 89 for one in the powerplay alone. The ball was coming on to the bat. Boundaries were flowing from both ends. In that environment, Abhishek hit the ground running immediately - four fours off his first five balls, a powerplay that yielded 83 runs without loss, a fifty that arrived before the fifth over was complete.

Against DC, the conditions were fundamentally different. The pitch was on the slower side, offering low bounce, muting the natural trajectory of a hard-hitting left-hander. The first four overs yielded just 36 runs. The first six did not arrive until the fifth over. Both Abhishek and Travis Head, the most destructive opening pair in T20 cricket, were visibly struggling to hit through the line in the early stages.

In 2025, the pitch did half the work. In 2026, Abhishek had to solve a problem before he could dominate it.

The Acceleration Pattern

This is where the two innings diverge most sharply in character.

The 2025 knock against PBKS was a near-vertical explosion from the first delivery. There was no gear-changing because Abhishek started in top gear and stayed there. His strike rate barely dipped at any point until the very end. The innings had the quality of something that simply happened to a bowling attack - a natural disaster rather than a calculated assault.

The 2026 innings was different in construction. The first four overs were measured, almost conservative by Abhishek's standards. He was reading the surface, identifying what the pitch would allow. Then, once he found his range off Nitish Rana in the fifth over - a cover drive six followed by a pull over long-on - the switch flipped.

The middle overs became a demolition job. Between overs seven and fifteen, SRH accumulated 116 runs. Kuldeep Yadav went for 22 in a single over and was effectively withdrawn from the attack. Axar Patel and Kuldeep combined were pulled after just two overs each. Three frontline pacers in Mukesh Kumar, Lungi Ngidi, and T Natarajan collectively went wicketless, conceding 137 runs between them.

The 2025 innings never had an early phase. The 2026 innings had one - and that is precisely what makes it interesting.

Shot-Making: Width of Range vs Depth of Craft

Abhishek's shot selection in 2025 was extraordinary in its variety. A helicopter shot off Marco Jansen's attempted yorker. Improvised scoops off length deliveries behind the wicketkeeper. Ramps. Reverse hits. The whole encyclopedia of modern T20 batting, opened at random pages and executed with impunity. It was the kind of innings that is almost impossible to plan against because the batter himself did not seem to be following any specific plan.

Against DC in 2026, the range was slightly narrower but the execution more deliberate. The hallmark was how Abhishek adjusted the downswing of his bat depending on which bowler was operating. Against Ngidi, he played late, in front of the wicket, using the pace. Against the spinners, he was more aggressive at the point of release, dancing down or coming across his stumps. Most of his sixes went in front of the wicket - straight hitting, lofted on-drives, punches over mid-off. It was range-hitting with tactical intent rather than range-hitting as instinct.

If the 2025 innings was jazz - brilliant, free-flowing, sometimes chaotic - the 2026 version was composed closer to classical. Still aggressive, still dominant, but with a structure underneath it.

How He Faced Spin

Spin has always been a domain Abhishek has not merely survived but attacked. Against PBKS, Yuzvendra Chahal and Glenn Maxwell bore the brunt. He targeted both from the outset, and a dropped catch off his own bowling by Chahal - when Abhishek was on 57 - only made things worse for Punjab. He punished the next delivery with a six.

Against DC on Tuesday, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav, two of India's best spinners, were rendered ineffective. Kuldeep conceded 22 in a single over with Abhishek and Ishan Kishan attacking in tandem. Axar, who dismissed Travis Head, could not get a handle on Abhishek and was taken off after two overs. In total, DC's spinners - including part-timer Nitish Rana - went for 108 runs in eight overs combined.

The difference between the two innings against spin is less about how he played it and more about who was bowling. Against PBKS, he faced competent but not elite spin. Against DC, he faced Kuldeep and Axar - two bowlers who have troubled him in the past - and still came out on top. That is a meaningful distinction.

Against Pace: Contrast in Starting Points

The contrast against pace is starker. In 2025, Arshdeep Singh and Jansen were hit for boundaries immediately. The powerplay became a launchpad from ball one. There was almost no adjustment period.

In 2026, Abhishek and Head found the pace attack harder to put away early, precisely because the pitch was slower. The ball was not coming on. The edges were not flying. But rather than force the issue, Abhishek stayed patient - rotating strike, accumulating through the infield - before targeting specific deliveries once he had a clear read of what the pitch would allow. By the time he had identified the slot, the damage was done. Mukesh, Ngidi, and Natarajan were hit for 53, 44, and 40 runs respectively, all without reward.

The Luck Question

Any honest analysis of the 2025 innings against PBKS must acknowledge what it also contained. Abhishek survived seven false shots in the powerplay alone by ESPNcricinfo's count - a catch at backward point off Yash Thakur's no-ball, a swirling chance off his own bowling that Chahal dropped, mishits that fell into open spaces. The innings was exceptional, but it was also charmed. Shreyas Iyer said as much immediately after the match, and he was not wrong.

The 2026 innings against DC was not entirely without fortune either - Nitish Rana grassed a chance in the late stages of Abhishek's innings. But the conditions were uncooperative, the spinners were quality, and the innings was built primarily on reading the surface and adapting to it. Compared to the seven escapes in a single powerplay a year ago, it was a significantly cleaner knock.

What It Means

Abhishek Sharma came into IPL 2026 under a different kind of scrutiny. His high-risk approach had produced six ducks in the 2026 calendar year before this tournament began. Critics had started to question whether brilliance and consistency could coexist in his batting. The PBKS hundred in 2025 was the kind of innings that silences those questions temporarily. The DC hundred answers them differently - quietly, structurally, on a pitch that did not flatter.

He is now level with Virat Kohli for the most T20 hundreds by an Indian. He has become the first batter to bat through a full 20-over IPL innings and score 135 or more, doing what no one - not Gayle, not de Villiers, not McCullum - has managed in the tournament's history. He leads the Orange Cap race in IPL 2026.

The numbers are remarkable. But what is more remarkable is the direction of travel. The 2025 century was proof of what Abhishek Sharma could do when everything went right. The 2026 century is proof of what he can do when it does not.

That is a more important innings than the scorebook suggests.