Former New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson says that India youngster Abhishek Sharma is one of the most dangerous T20 batters in the world. The statement came on a ESPNCricinfo show during ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season. Williamson had captained Abhishek at SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the past.

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Abhishek now forms one half of one of the most dangerous opening pairs in IPL with Travis Head on the other end. He was brought in by SRH from Delhi Capitals in 2019 and in 2024 he fully paid the trust shown in him - hitting 484 runs in 16 innings at a strike rate of 204.

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"Sometimes in the IPL, it's quite difficult to have a long pathway for a young player. But yeah, a real masterstroke obviously now bearing fruit with Abhi being one of the most dangerous T20 batters in the world," said Williamson on his late blooming.

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"I think there were a few guys who were kind of under Yuvraj Singh's wings," Williamson added. "Abhi was one of them and Shubman [Gill] was another. So clearly there was an identification of talent.

"He has got that gift of power but it's not through brute force. It is through timing the ball and playing all around the ground, which is a superpower in a lot of ways. It's a little bit like Heinrich Klaasen"

His last year's IPL exploits also earned him a place in the India T20I team which had two vacant places at the top after Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli retired post T20 World Cup 2024 win.

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Abhishek shone there as well - scoring 535 runs in 17 games at an average of 33.43 and a strike rate of 193 - with two hundreds and two fifties.

In the first match of the IPL 2025, Abhishek scored 24 off 11 balls as SRH once again had a flying start of 45 runs in three overs.