The thing is, this exciting young left-hander drives on the up, pulls anything that is short, takes the yorker on the full and drives it straight down the ground for a boundary. When you take the pace off, he is ready for it, uses the loopy nature of the delivery to hit it even further.

Adil Rashid, a competent T20 wrist spinner, also could not stop him. He tried everything in his armoury, the leg spinner, the front of hand fast ball, the googly at various speeds; he tried all this around the wicket too.

Nothing worked.

So which bowler can stop this mayhem? Two bowlers came to mind, Shane Warne and Kuldeep Yadav. Why? Because both spinners turn the ball big.

That was their main focal point, to turn the ball a lot, give it a real rip first and then all the variations. There was an instance during Abhishek’s innings where he danced down the pitch to Adil Rashid, and the experienced bowler that the leg-spinner is, he saw that and bowled a little short.

Abhishek was not to the pitch of the ball, but from that position itself he let his bat swing come through and made a great connection. When he made that connection, his bat was at least a metre away from where the ball had pitched.

Now, Abhishek was able to make the connection because that ball did not turn much, it changed direction only slightly.

With the late Shane Warne and now Kuldeep Yadav, who has modelled himself on Warnie, there was a great chance the ball would have gone past the bat because it would have changed its original course considerably.

I remember during the 1996 World Cup, Warne was bowling in the first 10 overs at the Wankhede. The pitch then was no different from this one, and Tendulkar, who in that phase tried to score maximum in the first 10 overs with two fielders outside, tried to loft Warne over his head.

Tendulkar rarely missed such attempts, but he completely miscued that shot because of how much the ball had turned after pitching. He was lucky to not get out. After that, Tendulkar decided that he was going to show restraint against Warne and attack the other bowlers.

By the way, the Warne that India dominated in the following Test series was unlike the one that played in that 1996 World Cup. Having played him myself in this match, you had to be really cautious about the lavish turn that he got on his leg spinner. You had to change your basic instinct of where to place the bat in relation to a normal leg-spinning delivery. Warnie’s leg spin turned two inches more.

This was because Warne used his strong body and fingers to achieve just one thing. Big turn.

Mystery bowlers had their time, seamers with deceptive slow deliveries had their time, 140+ quick bowlers also have had their time, as we found out in this India-England T20 series. Mark Wood and Jofra Archer, the two express bowlers in the side, were also the most expensive in the England side. I believe, in the foreseeable future spinners who can turn the ball big will be the ones who can stop the rampaging Abhishek Sharmas of the T20 world.

Such batters seldom go to the pitch of the ball. And if the ball is hitting somewhere close to the middle of the bat, it will go for six, so marginal turn just isn’t the solution. I can visualise Abhishek trying to take on Kuldeep in the India nets. I don’t think he’s going to find it as easy as taking on an Adil Rashid.

Moving on, there was one instance in the last T20 with regards to Archer. Interestingly, Archer is a very expressive bowler.

From his facial expressions, you can gauge what he is thinking. One time, he was laughing to himself, not smiling, but actually laughing, and it was a cynical laugh as another good ball of his (as in theoretically good ball) disappeared for six.

Now, this is not a good sign for the long-term viability of T20 cricket.

When bowlers start getting cynical about their job, it’s like in any other area of work. If everyone around us is getting clobbered, what’s the big deal?

You start feeling comfortable being part of the herd; this also means conceding to the inevitability of your fate, that whatever you do you will still be hit for a minimum of two sixes an over. After a day’s work in the office, you go back to your hotel room and sleep soundly.

One has to feel for the bowlers. Unless the balance is restored through changes in laws, this T20 format is crazily lopsided in favour of the batter.

But life must go on until then, so the solution is for head hunters to look for spinners who can turn the ball big. This may not be a short-lived trend like the ones before them.