For Jitesh Sharma, the upcoming Bangladesh T20Is will be the most crucial part of his career. The wicketkeeper-batter from Vidarbha is set to return to play for India after eight months but it won’t be the same as the last time he played for his country – a T20 match against Afghanistan which was in January 2024. However many changes have come in the Indian T20I environment since then. The outfit is a World Champion now, with a different coach.
“It always feels special to don the jersey of the national team. It feels good to be in the picture again. The excitement is about the series,” reported Jitesh at NCA, exclusively to News18 CricketNext.
Past the 30-year mark, he is now expected to press the career-reset button after getting the second shot. Earlier even, he was given a long rope when the team management was designing the strategy for the rebuilding phase after Kohli, Rohit led batting in the shortest format. However, Jitesh could not take it properly. He began to slip away as the T20 World Cup came closer because he caved in due to the burden of his own expectations.
While batting for the country in his last six T20Is, he scored 35, 24, 1, 4, 31 & 0 respectively. Though he made each and every attempt to convince the selectors during IPL 2024, he was not successful. Unlike a successful previous season wherein he batted for 309 runs with ease, Jitesh found the going tough for he batted for only 187 runs in 14 outings with a batting average of 17 for Punjab Kings.
In a desperate attempt to be effective, he went out of the cut. However, as he posters himself to start learning his sport all over again, he harbours no grievances borne of the past.
“Yes, that is certainly true [the dip in form]. In fact, at number I bat, I tend to look to cross the line and win it for my team. But this time around, I didn’t really have much of it, honestly. The World Cup mattered a great deal to me and I think that burdened me unnecessarily. But now, I don’t feel sorry about it, rather see it as experience on such occurrences. Jo bhi hota hai, ache ke liye hota hai,” he said.
The reality of not making it to the squads for the T20 World Cup brought this back to him. He reported feeling light and able to concentrate. His rhythm returned towards the tail end of IPL 2024 when he exited as the PBKS captain in the final match of the season against Sunrisers Hyderabad and completed the innings one not out on 32 off 15 balls of the total 214/5 scored by his team.
“I first saw the team’s announcement and my eyes opened. after that, I was unconcerned. My brain was able to work. I was able to think about my game, which even showed in the last two IPL innings that I played,” he said.
“It was the first time for me that I was somewhere in the mix for the World Cup. I was not used to that, so whatever.”
Jitesh has no expectations and simply wants to keep going in the process of becoming a better cricketer. He thinks that the current form is important in the shortest format, which is why he believes Sanju Samson is in the T20 World Cup squad.
“A lesson that I learnt from a few months back is to not have high hopes from anything. So, now I am more concentrating on how to better my batting and wicket keeping and how to evolve as a cricketer. The process has to continue whether you are part of the team or not.
There is one thing that is common among all, and that is to keep in good relations with everyone. For example, if I couldn’t perform well in a certain series but come back to score 5-6 fifties in the IPL, then that will also count. So, the present form is important in T20s. Like, before the World Cup, Sanju was rightfully in the team because he was in great form. Jo current touch main hai, wo team mein aana chahiye,” Jitesh states.
VVS Laxman was head coach when Jitesh made his T20I debut in Hangzhou, China last year during the Asian Games. Back to the original side, he also trained under the coaching of Rahul Dravid. I need to Suck It Up For jitesh But anyway, Gautam Gambhir is drool-worthy and coincidentally, jitesh is looking forward to working with him as he is quite ‘sorted’ in his opinions on things.
“Gautam Gambhir ke saath milne ka mujhe khushi hai. Usse thoda samjhne ka mauka mila tha toh waisa heh kafi beldar jo ki kuch baat kahi toh seedha bola aisa lage,” Jitesh said on the anticipation of meeting legendary Indian cricketer, Gambhir. “He is a great person and I expect to gain a lot from him.”.
Surprisingly, the BCCI has made public the 8-point IPL retention policy and Jitesh is still unaware of the plan for Punjab Kings. He however humorously said to the site that he does not want to miss playing any of the teams but names the Chennai Super Kings and the Mumbai Indians as his best teams.
“Actually, every team is good and I would wish to play for them but since it is my personal opinions that are being sought, I must say that I like CSK and MI. I like Chennai Super Kings since I have experienced Ruturaj’s captaincy in domestic cricket and it has been great fun. We are also good friends,” Jitesh stated.
“Along with the other franchises that I represented as part of the IPL in 2016 and 2017,” she said, “I was also in Mumbai but on the sidelines, so I feel I have some unfinished business with MI, representing them and experiencing the Wankhede atmosphere.”
Jitesh has been playing professional cricket since 2014 and since then has played more T20 games than other formats combined, furthering his ‘T20 only’ image. To a casual observer, the fact that his number is more than one would suggest that the wicket-keeper batsman from Vidarbha is branded a T20 player cut-off but for him personally, it does not matter that much.
Jitesh says he just wants to play the game irrespective of the equipment that is used. After all, the common denominator in the three formats is scoring runs.
“Honestly saying, Mujhe bas cricket khelna hai, fir chahe red ball ho ya white (I just want to play cricket, no matter which colour the ball is).”
“I just want to play the game more often than not. As far as Ranji is concerned, I wasn’t available for the past few seasons. So, we have Akshay Wadkar in our [Vidarbha] team who is performing well. So, when I will be available, I will go and score runs. That’s what a batter needs to do. So, format koi bhi ho, bus run karna hai,” he added.
The Indian T20I team is amidst a transition and Jitesh is also aware of the cut-throat competition. But die-hard optimist that he is, he persists in his conviction that for all the circumstances, even the selection for T20 World Cup 2026, performance is paramount.
“Perform karta rahunga to
koi cheez rok hi nahi sakti hai mujhe [Nothing could stop me from excelling if keep performing]. So, if I keep scoring runs and winning games for my teams, I don’t think playing a World Cup would be that tough,” he concluded.
