I always believe in my hitting ability: Abhishek

After smashing a 47-ball hundred, young batter Abhishek Sharma said he kept belief in his hitting ability despite getting out for a duck in his international debut, in the first T20 International against Zimbabwe, in Harare, on Saturday.

Abhishek announced his arrival on the big stage as his blistering century powered India to a huge 234/2 before the visitors bundled the hosts out for 134 in 18.4 overs for a whopping 100-run win  on Sunday, to level the five-match series at 1-1.

"I feel like if it's your day, you express yourself. After the drop, I thought it was my day and had to take responsibility," Abhishek said at the post-match presentation.

"Rutu (Ruturaj Gaikwad) helped me in keeping perspective. I always believe in my (hitting) ability. It's about momentum for me. If it's in the arc, I believe I need to hit it over regardless of when it is," he added.

Abhishek hailed his team's ability to bounce back swiftly from a setback just a day ago.

"It was a good performance after the defeat yesterday. We didn't have much time to lament. I felt that T20

is all about the momentum, and thought it was my day today. Special thanks to the coaches and captain for keeping confidence (in me)," said Abhishek, who was named the player of the match.

India skipper Shubman Gill said the team felt good to be back to winning ways and lauded Abhishek and Ruturaj Gaikwad for their big alliance.

"It was not easy to bat in powerplay. Abhi and Rutu built innings brilliantly. Hopefully, the batters continue to fire in the games coming up," Gill said.

"Yesterday was more about us not being able to handle pressure. Ours is a young side. Actually, it was good to have pressure in the first game and we knew what to expect today."

Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza admitted that the "world champions will eventually play like world champions".

"I thought our fielding was bad, dropping four chances hurt us. I expected 200 on that wicket and it'd get better in the second innings. They got 20 extra. I thought it'd be a close game coming into the chase, but wasn't to be," he said.

Raza hoped to see more runs from his top-order batters.  

"Our top order is not firing. Blessing (Muzarabani) has come leaps and bounce, he's very hungry. As long as he stays fit, he'll bowl well.

"We have talked about batting for a while. It's easier to fix when there is a pattern. We came out firing today, lot of the issues came down to inexperience," he added.