Smoothening bilateral ties aside, the Indian men’s cricket team would have had a few cricketing aspirations from the three-T20I series against Afghanistan, which concluded here at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Thursday.That, Sanju Samson should score some runs, after accumulating only 34 across four matches in Ireland and England. He did — 117 runs at 39 and 180. That, Jasprit Bumrah should appear in his usual flow after recovering from a knee injury. He did — three wickets at 6.70 runs per over. That, Nitish Kumar Reddy’s bowling should make him seem like a reliable seam-bowling all-round replacement of the injury-prone Hardik Pandya. He did — six wickets at an average of 13.16.They would have wished for nothing more, though, than Abhishek Sharma to rediscover whatever had made him — unknown elixir, generational talent, or simply, mojo — the number one T20I batter in the world. On the back of a Zimbabwe series where he scored 11 in three matches, Abhishek needed to arrive at the stage.Not only did he arrive, but he tore the stage up.Also Read | Abhishek Sharma hits fastest T20I century: 100 off 30 balls vs AfghanistanIn the third T20I, the Indian opener scored a 34-ball 108, starring in his team’s 127-run win over the designated hosts. His knock comprised nine fours and eleven sixes — accosting for 102 runs — while he also broke records aplenty in the process.The most notable of those being the fastest among Indians to get to a T20I century — off only 30 deliveries, breaking Rohit Sharma’s record which stood the test of time for nine years.Much before Abhishek had struck a six, before even a ball was bowled, the crowd in New Delhi celebrated — in perfect synchronisation — Indian captain Shreyas Iyer’s defeat at the toss. Afghanistan had opted to bowl first, and those at the stadium were expecting Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to open the innings for India.Story continues below this adThat, the 15-year-old was knocking for the 30 minutes preceding the toss, proved to be of little substance. The opening pair of Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma remained untouched — and they proved so why, with a 142-run opening stand. Samson scored his second half-century of the series, recording a 35-ball 50.Also Read | Abhishek Sharma shows Afghans no mercy in 30-ball tonThe pair departed in quick succession — Abhishek fell to Rashid Khan in the 10th over, Samson to Azmatullah Omarzai in the 14th. Sandwiched between the two wickets was that of Tilak Varma, who could only add a couple of runs to the team’s tally on this occasion.The only other notable contribution with the bat came from the captain himself, who scored a 20-ball 29, in a knock that included a couple of maximums. Overall, the score of 221/7 ranked 22nd on the list of India’s highest totals in T20I cricket.Afghanistan’s batting performances have been a misrepresentation of their talent in the first two T20Is. What they offered in this fixture, though, fell a handsome distance short of qualifying as a ‘performance,’ and into a region where the more appropriate term is ‘debacle.’Story continues below this adAlso Read | Japan prepares ground for T20 with India, Sri Lanka pitches in, and sponsors line upAfter two consecutive ducks, Rahmanullah Gurbaz finally opened his account, with the first three overs yielding 31 runs. That was, however, where the Afghan challenge concluded. Axar Patel’s introduction saw him dismissing Gurbaz, and his successor Sediqullah Atal, in the fourth over. In the fifth, Darwish Rasooli fell to Jasprit Bumrah.Captain Ibrahim Zadran was the last wicket to fall inside powerplay, for a 16-ball 25, which was followed by a 23-run fifth-wicket stand between debutant Noor ul Rahman and Azmatullah Omarzai.Also Read | Sanju Samson’s 57 answers the trolls, but not the question of his futureRavi Bishnoi made his presence felt in the ninth over with Rahman’s wicket, while Reddy took three in the same over — his list of victims including Nabi, Omarzai and Mujeeb Ur Rahman. Ultimately, Afghanistan fell six short of a hundred, 14 short of Abhishek’s total, 128 of the target, and a country mile of salvaging any pride at all.Brief Scores: India 221/7 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 108; Azmatullah Omarzai 2/27) beat Afghanistan 94 all out in 14.1 overs (Ibrahim Zadran 25; Nitish Kumar Reddy 3/25) by 127 runs.