India, Nov. 1 -- The most balls Abhishek Sharma has faced in an innings is 55 in IPL and 54 in T20Is. Needless to say he finished with hundreds on both occasions, striking at better than 250 before being dismissed deep into the innings-in the 18th over against England and in the 17th over against Punjab Kings, both this year.

Never before has the 25-year-old batted this deep into an innings and not scored a hundred or thereabouts as against Australia in Friday's second T20I at Melbourne.

Abhishek has had a big year so far and a lot of talk is deservedly centred on that stupendous strike rate. But what isn't discussed in enough depth is the thought process that fuels these innings, and how good - or not yet - he really is. The innings at...