Has India's T20 batting evolved beyond Abhishek Sharma's brilliance?

Top-ranked T20 batter has not been at his best in Australia but visitors have still taken unassailable series lead

India openers Abhishek Sharma, left, and Shubman Gill during the fourth T20 against Australia at the Carrara Stadium in Gold Coast. AFP

After a stumbling start to the T20 series in Australia, world champions India quickly dusted themselves off and took an unassailable 2-1 lead in the five-game series on Thursday, and that too fairly comfortably.

India's spinners took six wickets on a sluggish Gold Coast surface to crush Australia by 48 runs in the fourth T20 after posting a decent score of 167-8. This, after the Indians had chased down a target of 187 in the third T20 with relative ease - five wickets and nine wickets in hand.

Even though Australia were missing some key players to Ashes preparations, both matches were played on challenging surfaces, which leveled the playing field.

For India, it was not the results as such that mattered. It was the manner in which they achieved it.

In both wins, India's batters did what was asked of them. And in both games, no Indian batter scored a fifty.

There were consistent contributions from all batters, which should fill the team management with confidence. Because that means India's T20 batting is not about just Abhishek Sharma.

Abhishek is the top-ranked T20 batter in the world and showcased the full range of his abilities during a victorious Asia Cup campaign in the UAE. The left-handed batter was by far the most destructive batter during the tournament and held India's batting together.

His one failure came in the final against Pakistan, in accordance with the law of averages. India were chasing 147 and in early trouble. There, another gifted left-handed batter - Tilak Varma - took the team past the finish line in an ill-tempered contest.

In the ongoing T20 series Down Under, Abhishek has tried his best to break free but Australia's potent new-ball bowlers and difficult surfaces have restricted him to one fifty in four games, with his strike rate also coming down a few notches.

That should have put a spanner in the works of India's T20 plans, especially since Abhishek is the only out-and-out attacking T20 batter in the line-up; earlier, India had the equally dangerous Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top, while Sanju Samson could also match Abhishek in impact and strike rate.

But it is not the same Indian team anymore. Future all-format captain Shubman Gill has been placed at the top of the order, with everyone else adjusting around him.

Captain Suryakumar Yadav, the top ranked T20 batter not too long ago, does not seem even half the batter now and even though he seems to be getting his touch back, most bowling sides have a simple and proven way to keep him quiet - bowl traditional Test lines outside off and into his shoulder.

There was a lot more careful accumulation by India's batters in the Australia series than at any point over the last two seasons in bilateral cricket. Whether this same approach works on pitches where 240 can be chased is a different matter.

But for now, India have found a way to get everyone pulling their weight - mainly through a fluid and deep batting line-up. That takes the pressure off Abhishek to deliver every time; all-rounder Washington Sundar scored a match-winning 49 in the third T20 against the Aussies while Gill made a decent 46 at Gold Coast.

After the win in the fourth T20, captain Suryakumar said his openers Abhishek and Gill - who made 57 in seven overs - had assessed the conditions nicely. "The way Shubman and Abhishek started, they knew this was not a 200-220 wicket. They batted very smartly," he explained.

However, that does not mean India will take this same template to the T20 World Cup at home next year. The management knows they need a lot more brute power at the top for the largely flat pitches in India. Having both Gill and a misfiring Suryakumar in the XI might be a luxury the team can't afford.

But for now, India seemed to have learnt how to get the job done, irrespective of what Abhishek - their best T20 batter - does.