Jitesh Sharma deserves call up to India T20 team, says Anil Kumble

The journey of Jitesh Sharma is one of a kind. He was never interested in cricket. His plan was to play cricket till Class X so that he would get extra marks in the boards, which will help him to cross the cut-off list of the NDA exam. He wanted to be an airforce officer, but destiny had something else in store for him.

“I never wanted to play cricket. I never had a childhood coach. I learnt cricket from watching the videos on YouTube; most of them were of Adam Gilchrist and Sourav Ganguly. I always wanted to go into defence. I wanted to be an air force officer,” Jitesh tells The Indian Express in a free-wheeling chat.

“I was very fond of that blue shirt. To appear for the NDA exam, you need a specific cut-off. In Maharashtra, there was a rule – If any player, who has played till the state level, he or she would get 25 marks extra. That was the catch. For that extra 5 per cent, I started playing cricket.”

In 2011, at the age of 16, he appeared for the district trials of the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) after the insistence of his neighbour Amar More.

“Amar More, my neighbour, saw me playing in a school cricket match. At his insistence, I joined the cricket club in Amravati. The plan was simple: after the boards I will quit cricket, but it never happened,” Jitesh narrates his tale.

Cut to the present; he is a regular for Vidarbha and Punjab Kings. He is executing the role of a finisher to perfection. He has already earned an India call-up and above all he has left a massive impression on former India opener Virender Sehwag, who wanted him in India’s T20 World Cup squad.

Punjab Kings’ Jitesh Sharma loses his wicket during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings in Mumbai, India. (PTI)

Sharma had a breakthrough season in IPL 2022, where he scored 234 runs in 12 matches but it was his strike rate 163.64 that caught everyone’s attention. In this year’s IPL, he again is doing his business efficiently for Punjab Kings. Batting at 6 and 7, most of the time, he has scored 145 runs with a strike rate of 150.

Jitesh started the season with a 10-ball 21 against Kolkata Knight Riders, followed it with 27 off 16 against Rajasthan Royals, a 27-ball 41, which almost gave the scare to the defending champions Gujarat Titans and then 25 off 7 balls against Mumbai Indians, where he clobbered four sixes to underline his ability as a dependable middle-order batter.

“Last season, when I was picked by Punjab Kings, Anil Kumble sir specifically told me that there is no expectation from me. He said ‘ be yourself, don’t get overawed and enjoy your cricket.’ It took all the pressure off me,” he says.

Punjab Kings Jitesh Sharma plays a shot during the IPL 2023 cricket match between Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians, at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. (PTI)

“It is all about situation awareness. At No. 4, you get more balls. You can manipulate the situation, hit a boundary, runs twos and threes, but at 6 or 7, you will have to attack every ball. So I try to play what the situation is, what’s the field placement and play my shots accordingly,” he adds.

Jitesh has made his name for his power-hitting, but one facet of the game that he enjoys his running between the wickets. He says, “You realise the importance of singles when team needs three of one ball and you end up losing by a solitary run. Every run in T20 matters. Strike rotation in T20 cricket is as important as hitting sixes. It doesn’t allow the bowlers to settle down in their rhythm. You hit a boundary and rotate the strike straight away, it irks the bowler,” he laughs.

Jitesh is an IPL champion; he won the trophy with Mumbai Indians in 2017. He never got to play any match, but that two-year stint brought a change in his cricket. He realised that being an opener is not going to get him recognition and at the age of 24, he decided to change his game and started batting in the middle order.

“When I was picked for MI, I knew that to get a chance in this team is going to be difficult. I was an opener. They had four keepers. Jos Buttler, Parthiv Patel, Nicholas Pooran and myself. But just be in that dressing room, training with the best Indian as well as foreign cricketers was everything I ever asked for,” he says.

Then came the dip.

Punjab Kings batter Jitesh Sharma plays a shot during the IPL 2023 cricket match between Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans, at Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali. (PTI)

As an opener it is very difficult to get into any IPL team. I was well aware. There was a dip also. Post 2017, I was not able to perform well. I worked on my skills. As a cricketer, the work never stops. You will have to improve every day. It was not a mental blockage, but I was not able to adapt to my new role,” he says.

Growing up, Jitesh never had a coach but he found a mentor and a friend in Ruchir Mishra, a Nagpur-based cricket journalist, who passed away during the pandemic two years ago.

“Ruchir bhai was very close to me. He was a mentor to me. He had more belief in my skill sets than I ever had. He would tell me ‘You will make Vidarbha proud. You will play for India.’ I would be like kya yaar Ruchir bhai kaise sapne dikha rahe ho. When I got that India call-up, the first person who came to my mind was Ruchir bhai. Hopefully, Ruchir bhai is proud of me, since I too have that self-belief in me that he always wanted to see,” says Jitesh.

Earlier this year, Jitesh was called up as cover for Sanju Samson during the T20 series against Sri Lanka. Jitesh also had a brilliant Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for Vidarbha, scoring 224 runs in ten games at a strike rate of 175.00.

“I was not expecting the India call. It was very exciting as well as challenging. My parents were happy, but I was a bit overwhelmed. For me the plan was to play cricket till Class X and now, suddenly, I had a chance to play for India. It was quite surreal,” says Jitesh.

Jitesh’s wicketkeeping story is also like his six-hitting.

“In the school team selection, they asked if anyone could keep. I raised by hand and collected the ball, actually better than our ex-keeper. Before that, I used to stand behind the stumps in plastic ball cricket in gully cricket.

“Thereafter, I started watching videos of Gilchrist and watched his reflexes and worked on it,” he says. From not really planning to play cricket to changing his batting style to become a power hitter, it’s been some journey.