Abhishek Sharma causes stadium damage before IPL 2025 even begins, smashes fire extinguisher glass with huge six

With the IPL 2025 season days away from commencing, teams and players have been hard at work as they gear up for this high-intensity tournament. While the players have knuckled down in practice as they try to find form and solidify their spots in the starting XI, it has been a somewhat chastening experience for the bowlers in Sunrisers Hyderabad, as they have been subjected to brutality in the practice nets by Abhishek Sharma.

In a video shared to SRH’s social media channels, the Indian opener can be seen smoking some signature hard-hit sixes, with some of them causing more damage than intended — including shattering the glass pane of a box housing a fire extinguisher.

In the video, Abhishek is asked “What all have you broken,” to which he responded: “Broken my bats, mostly. But I heard the sound of glass breaking over there. Just ahead of the boundary.”

A clip is then shown of Abhishek hitting a typical long-handle drive over long-on, which skipped beyond the boundary and broke the glass window. Follow-up pictures show how the tall southpaw had perfectly managed to knock out one of the glass pane windows.

Abhishek looking for back-to-back monster seasons

Sharma is one of the most dangerous and pre-eminent hitters in the IPL, having a standout season in 2024 as his opening combination with Travis Head supercharged a record-breaking run to the IPL final. The campaign included three of the four highest scores in the history of the tournament, thanks in large part to Abhishek’s ability to hit from ball one in the powerplay.

Now an established member of the Indian T20I unit with a couple of international centuries to his name, Abhishek will be looking to take an equally strong SRH side back to the finals, with the Orange Army considered one of the pre-tournament favourites.

In 2024, Abhishek whacked 484 runs at a phenomenal strike-rate of 204, with only Jake Fraser-McGurk outdoing him in that category. However, Abhishek did strike 42 sixes, becoming the first Indian player to hit at least 40 maximums in a single IPL season, leading the charts last year.

Sharma and SRH’s campaign will begin with an afternoon match at the Rajiv Gandhi Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad, up against the Rajasthan Royals, on Sunday.