Young wicketkeeper batter Jitesh Sharma revealed the conversation he had with India head coach Rahul Dravid when he was selected as a replacement for Sanju Samson in the T20I series against Sri Lanka earlier this year. Jitesh has been selected in India’s squad for the upcoming Asian Games. He is expected to make his international debut in the multi-nation event.
The right-handed batter impressed many with his sensational batting in the 2023 edition of Indian Premier League while playing for Punjab Kings. Jitesh played as a finisher for the franchise and played a couple of crucial knocks for them.
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While the ‘Orange Cap’ and accolades are normally reserved for top-order batters, the 29-year-old Vidarbha batter-keeper’s finishing ability is like gold dust that the current Indian T20 set-up is desperately seeking having pressed the reset button.
“There are always discussions on how one can improve. Yes, I had discussions with Rahul sir, when I was selected during the home season a few months back,” Jitesh told PTI during an interaction after he was named in the Indian team for the Asian Games in Hangzhou, starting September 23.
Jitesh revealed what coach Dravid told him when he received the maiden India call-up earlier in January.
“Jaise batting kar rahein ho, waise hi karte raho. Aur yehi dekh rahe hain hum future ke liye. Humein aise players hi chahiye is position ke liye. (The way you are batting, continue in the same vein. We are specifically looking for players like these for certain batting positions (Nos 5 and 6),” the national coach’s advice during his brief interaction is imprinted in his mind.
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Jitesh scored 309 runs in 14 matches in IPL 2023 at a sublime strike rate of 156.06. He didn’t score a half-century but played a couple of crucial knocks while batting as a finisher. Jitesh hit 77 boundaries (44 fours and 33 sixes) in 24 IPL innings so far, having batted mostly deep into the back-10.
The 29-year-old has played 90 T20s thus far in his career in which he scored 2096 runs which includes a century and 9 half-century.
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