India, April 23 -- It was during the T20 World Cup earlier this year when former Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir, once implicated and convicted in a horrible match-fixing case, talked out of his ass that India batsman Abhishek Sharma was only a slogger. That he had no real batting credentials, and with a bit of smart moves, a bowler could have the better of him. His highly offensive remarks on a TV show, unfortunately, coincided with Abhishek's poor returns with the bat, and for a large part of the T20 World Cup, it was a hot topic of discussion on both sides of the border.

But Abhishek didn't take long to hit back. He ended up playing two highly important knocks in the tournament. First against Zimbabwe, in a match where India needed a big...