Indian bowling coach Morne Morkel has backed struggling opener Abhishek Sharma after a hat-trick of ducks, calling him a "world-class player" and expressing confidence that he will deliver in the Super Eight stage of the T20 World Cup.

Ahead of India's Super Eight T20 World Cup clash against South Africa, Indian bowling coach Morne Morkel backed a struggling Abhishek Sharma after a hat-trick of ducks, saying that the team trusts him to deliver and entertain the fans during this important phase of the tournament.

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The world's number one T20I batter has not been able to buy himself a run in the three innings he has played so far against USA, Pakistan and Netherlands, playing the latter two matches after a battle with a stomach infection that put him in the hospital and reportedly led to him losing a considerable amount of weight too. In his last eight innings, he has five ducks. In eight innings this year, Abhishek has made 182 runs at an average of 26.00 and a strike rate of over 224, with two fifties and a best score of 84.

'Abhishek is a world-class player'

Speaking during the pre-match presser, Morkel termed the left-hander a "world-class player" and said there are no discussions about his slump. "Absolutely no discussion in our team group about that. Abhishek is a world-class player. So far in the tournament, luckily, there have been guys standing up with Abhishek, obviously not scoring the runs he would like."

"But we are going through a very important phase of the World Cup now, and I am pretty sure he's going to deliver. Not so much just for the team, but also for all the viewers watching the game, because he is entertaining, and we love to see that. So, yeah, I am pretty sure he is hitting the ball well in the nets. It is just a matter of getting that started and getting his innings going," he added.

Career in focus

Last year, Abhishek was in the form of his life, scoring 859 runs in 21 innings at an average of 42.95 and a strike rate of over 193, with a century and five fifties and a best score of 135. In 41 T20Is and 40 innings, he has made 1,297 runs at an average of 34.13 and a strike rate of 192, with two centuries and eight fifties.

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