Abhishek Sharma appears fidgety at first impression: as we speak, he constantly tosses a bottle from one hand to the other for a few minutes, with the water inside it making a clicking sound each time the bottle shifts sides. His eyes keep wandering too, and there are non-stop hand gestures as he talks.

But as the conversation grows, there is realisation that Abhishek’s mind is as clear as the water inside the bottle. Straightaway, he talks about his goals; one of them is to win titles for Punjab. At the upcoming domestic season, beginning with the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s from October 11, Abhishek, 22, will be leading Punjab.

“Obviously, the ultimate goal is to play for India,” Abhishek says over a Zoom call. “But I am also setting short, small goals for myself – like winning the Mushtaq Ali Trophy.”

Abhishek’s transition from a bowler to an allrounder happened when his father Raj Kumar Sharma noticed his son’s abilities to be multi-dimensional.

“He too was a cricketer for Punjab,” Abhishek says. And inspired by his father, he also started as a left-arm spinner “when I was probably five or six”.

“But slowly when he realised that I can bat as well – I must have been eight or nine – I started with batting,” he says. “My Dad was the one who recognised my talent.”

Being a lower middle-order bat in domestic cricket can be tough. You are not always on the selection radar, you rarely get to score big and your failures tend to be amplified more. But all those are a thing of the past. Abhishek is now an opener for Punjab.

In his second first-class match for his domestic team, he was batting alongside Yuvraj Singh. Before that, Abhishek had struck a fluent 94 on debut against Himachal Pradesh to earn plaudits from his idol. Barely able to mutter a word then, the two have since struck an excellent rapport. These days, Yuvraj plays mentor to Abhishek and several Punjab players, even conducting camps and bating sessions in an unofficial capacity at their behest.

“Yuvi paaji knows me in and out,” Abhishek says. “When I look at the way I have been developing myself, I realise that his tips have been really helping me. Everything he tells me – starting from my stance, about [playing] short balls, my intensity throughout, and my strength – have helped me a lot.”

And like Yuvraj, Abhishek is clear that he wants to have an equal impact with the ball. The left-arm fingerspinner already has a canny backspinning legcutter that he has used time and again in the IPL for Sunrisers Hyderabad but that hasn’t stopped him from trying to expand his repertoire.

“I have been working on variations because I think if I want to play all three formats, I need to work really hard on my bowling,” he says. “It was only last year that I had started bowling with the new ball, and I felt really good. These were the factors I wanted to develop.”

Time away from the game has helped him develop routines at training. During this off-season, when he was not a part of the India A side that faced New Zealand A, and also not selected for the Duleep Trophy and the Irani Cup, he experimented with a variation he learnt from a very successful modern-day offspinner.

“Two years back, Mohammad Nabi taught me a particular ball which is almost like a swinging ball. I understood it, but wasn’t able to bowl it as well as he does,” Abhishek says.

“So I have tried [bowling] that, and I think I have been doing well. With the new ball, I am currently working on three or four variations, which I think will be very useful.”

Batting and bowling aside, captaincy means Abhishek’s plate is full. But he has embraced responsibility and wants to build on his early initiation.

Abhishek has led Punjab at age-group levels and also captained the India U-19s in the run in to the 2018 World Cup. Is leading the senior Punjab side any different? “It isn’t, because I had been playing with some players in the Punjab team right from our U-16 days,” he says. “But you also have seniors in a top-level side. That’s where your challenge is: how do you handle them, and create that atmosphere? Captaincy made me a more mature batsman and leader.”

Abhishek’s interactions with legends isn’t limited to Yuvraj. When he was part of India’s U-19 World Cup winning side four years ago, he trained under current India head coach Rahul Dravid. Last December, he had an opportunity to pick Brian Lara‘s brains after he was brought on as Sunrisers’ strategic advisor and batting coach.

“Rahul sir always told me to trust myself,” Abhishek remembers. “He never asked me to change anything about my batting; he always wanted me to bat till the end. He is one of the most positive persons I have ever met.”

What about chats with Lara, who has now been appointed Sunrisers’ head coach?

“He was calling every batsman for a one-on-one meet. He asked me, ‘What was common between openers who have done well over the past two years?’ I said, ‘They are all good players who play good shots’, but he actually wanted me to play 30-35 balls every innings. Whenever I went out to bat, he told me, ‘I’ll see you in the time-out’. So that stuck in my mind. When someone like Lara sir has faith in you, you get that confidence.”

On a daily basis, Abhishek has a close circle of friends and seniors he trusts for inputs.

“One is Shubman [Gill], another is our ex-player Sharad Lumba, and also Gurkeerat Mann,” he says. “Lara sir and I had a very good tuning too. We always talk about cricket, and when there is a match going on, we text each other to discuss how someone is batting.”

Abhishek is now into his fifth season as a domestic cricketer, having burst through as a sprightly 16-year old. He is at a stage where he is ready to make the big leap. His close mates from those U-19 days – Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill and Arshdeep Singh – have all gone on to represent the senior team. Abhishek, however, has found the transition a tad tougher – not least because for a long time, he didn’t get enough opportunities to impress.

After 13 first-class matches, Abhishek averages only 29, with a highest of 98. His List A numbers are slowly on the rise, even if not right there: an average of almost 31 after 30 innings. And while he looks forward to pushing them up this season, there is a much bigger goal on his mind already. So where does he see himself five years down the line?

“Holding the World Cup for my country – for sure!”

The clarity is there, and Abhishek will be hoping to up those numbers. Maybe a title win could usher in the next chapter in his young career.