Former India player Harbhajan Singh has defended Abhishek Sharma after he scored 34 runs against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the 18th season of the Indian Premier League. The southpaw once again gifted his wicket to the rival team despite getting a good start. Yuvraj Singh, who is Abhishek’s mentor, has often slammed the batter on social media because of his habit of playing reckless shots.

Team India’s greatest white-ball all-rounder wants the 24-year-old to learn from his mistakes and contribute to the winning cause. Hyderabad retained Sharma, but he failed to show consistency in the ongoing edition. In 13 matches, he has scored 407 runs at an average of 33.91 and a strike rate of 192.89.

“Yuvraj Singh shouldn’t be unhappy with Abhishek Sharma’s performance as he showed consistency and batted well this season. You can never satisfy your coach and mentor as they think that there was a possibility of scoring more runs,” Harbhajan Singh said.

Saba Karim added his perspective to the conversation. “Abhishek Sharma is very talented but Yuvraj Singh was a big player in his career. Abhishek has skills to become an all format player and I think Yuvraj and Abhishek must be working on it,” he said.