Kapil Dev bats for Abhishek

new delhi: Legendary former captain Kapil Dev on Friday said the Indian team management should retain Abhishek Sharma for the T20 World Cup final against New Zealand despite his failure to get going in the high-profile tournament so far.

Abhishek has scored just one half century, against minnows Zimbabwe, in the mega-event and is being looked upon as a potential weakness for India if persisted with in the summit clash on Sunday in Ahmedabad.

“Just believe in your team and the management should believe in the player. And Abhishek should believe in himself that ‘I can perform and I will perform’. Still one game is there - the final,” Kapil said on the sidelines of a golf event here.

India defeated England by seven runs in a thrilling semifinal clash on Thursday.

Kapil said he did not expect the match to be this close.

“I didn’t think that it would become this difficult, when India score 250-plus, it was a brilliant game. Yes, India won, congratulations to them, but in the end it was cricket’s win. I enjoyed it a lot, not as a bowler though,” the pace great quipped.