Jitesh Sharma

Some Lesser Known Facts About Jitesh Sharma

• Jitesh Sharma is an Indian wicketkeeper, who plays for Vidarbha in Indian domestic cricket. A right-handed batsman, Jitesh is associated with the Indian Premier League (IPL) (as of 2022). BCCI named Jitesh in the Indian T20 International squad for India’s three-match T20 series against Sri Lanka in January 2023. Jitesh replaced Sanju Samson in the team after Samson suffered a knee injury in the first match of the series.

• Jitesh grew up in a middle-class family in Amravati, Maharashtra.

  

• Jitesh dreamt of joining the Indian armed forces since childhood.

• Not so good at academics in school days, Jitesh joined his school’s cricket team as it allowed him to miss his classes. Later, he carried on with the sport to get 4% grace marks in the army test. In an interview, while sharing the same, Jitesh said,
  

  I actually wanted to go into the armed forces. In Maharashtra school cricket, you get 4% grace in army tests if you play state cricket. I joined my school team because they played around the state level. I decided I’ll give a trial, and that’s how I started playing the sport. My dad never questioned me, and funnily enough, my mother still doesn’t know that I am playing at a level like the IPL. None of my cricket friends from those days play the sport – they all have normal jobs now.”

  In the same interview, Jitesh revealed the reason for choosing cricket as his career. He said,

  Somehow cricket has followed me. There were state trials once, for the BCCI U-16 tournament, and I scored runs there. But even then I had the air force as my first option, and I told my father that again. He agreed with my ambition but just asked me to keep playing cricket to keep my fitness levels up. Next year I wanted to keep playing so I went for U-19 trials, and once I got selected there too, I thought, I can make something out of this cricket.”

• Following Jitesh’s exceptional performance in the 2012-13 Cooch Behar Trophy, Sharma was added to the senior team of Vidarbha in 2013. He scored 537 runs including two centuries and one fifty in 12 innings during the 2012-13 Cooch Behar Trophy.

• On 27 February 2014, Jitesh Sharma made his List A debut in the 2013–14 Vijay Hazare Trophy against Rajasthan in Jaipur. Batting primarily in the top order, Sharma played only limited over matches for Vidarbha in the first two seasons of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

  

• He made his T20 debut against UP in Nagpur on 31 March 2014.

• During the 2015-2016 Ranji Trophy, Jitesh made his first-class debut on 1 October 2015, playing against Odisha at Nagpur. The tournament was very ordinary for Jitesh as he scored just 180 runs in seven matches at an average of 18.

  

• In the 2015-16 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Jitesh scored 343 runs, including one century and two fifties, at a strike rate of 143.51, becoming the third-highest run-scorer in the tournament.

• Sharma was the highest run-scorer for Vidarbha in the 2018-19 Vijay Hazare Trophy. He scored 298 runs in seven matches.

• His exceptional performance for Vidarbha at the top order caught the eye of the selectors of the IPL franchise Mumbai Indians in 2016, who bought him for Rs. 10 lacks during the IPL auction.

• In 2017, he was a part of the Mumbai Indians team that won the Indian Premier League season 10. However, he did not play in any match for the team. Post the league, he was released by Mumbai Indians.

  

• In February 2022, during the Indian Premier League auctions, Jitesh was signed up by the IPL franchise Punjab Kings for Rs. 20 lakhs.

• Jitesh played his first IPL match for Punjab Kings against Chennai Super Kings on 3 April 2022. In the match, Sharma scored 26 runs of 17 balls, helping Punjab Kings to win. He hit three sixes in the match against bowlers like Moeen Ali.

  

• Thereafter, he played around 10 IPL matches for Punjab Kings, scoring 234 runs at a strike rate of 163.63. He struck 22 fours and 12 sixes in the matches.

  

• In his spare time, Jitesh loves to travel, do adventure sports, and play golf.

• He has promoted a few sports nutrition brands like My Proteinin on his Instagram account.

  

• Jitesh is very particular about his fitness and visits the gym regularly.

  

• He is fluent in three languages- Hindi, Marathi, and English.

• Jitesh is a huge fan of Rohit Sharma‘s batting. In an interview, while sharing the advice that he once received from Rohit, Jitesh said,
  

  When I was with MI, I was a top-order batter and naturally, Rohit Sharma has been one of my favorite players. I had once interacted with him in the nets, where he told me, ‘Focus on using the speed of the bowler. When the speed of the bowler increases, it is better to trust your timing rather than your power-game.’ So, that advice has stayed with me and I try and implement it to date.”

• The South African cricketer AB de Villiers is his idol. In an interview, Jitesh was asked if he was working on building a 360-degree game like De Villiers. He replied,
  

  AB de Villiers has been my idol ever since I started batting in the middle-order. 360 degree to nahi par 250-260 degree ki koshish jaroor karta hu (laughs) (Not trying to play 360-degree shots, but trying to cover 250-260 degrees atleast).”

• Jitesh is very popular for the variety of strokes that he plays.

• In an interview, Jitesh revealed that he suffered depression after he was excluded from Vidarbha’s Ranji Trophy.