Jitesh Sharma: An airforce aspirant who carried out cricket for additional marks

The journey of Jitesh Sharma is one amongst a kind. He was not at all involved with cricket. His plan was to play cricket till Class X so that he would get additional marks throughout the boards, which is ready to help him to cross the cut-off file of the NDA examination. He wished to be an airforce officer, nonetheless future had one factor else in retailer 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, on 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 story.

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

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

Sharma had a breakthrough season in IPL 2022, the place he scored 234 runs in 12 matches however it was his strike price 163.64 that caught all people’s consideration. In this 12 months’s IPL, he as soon as extra is doing his enterprise successfully for Punjab Kings. Batting at 6 and 7, as a rule, he has scored 145 runs with a strike price of 150.

Jitesh started the season with a 10-ball 21 in direction of Kolkata Knight Riders, adopted it with 27 off 16 in direction of Rajasthan Royals, a 27-ball 41, which practically gave the scare to the defending champions Gujarat Titans after which 25 off 7 balls in direction of Mumbai Indians, the place he clobbered 4 sixes to underline his means 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 performs a shot in the midst of 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 gives.

Jitesh has made his determine for his power-hitting, nonetheless one facet of the game that he enjoys his working 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 gained the trophy with Mumbai Indians in 2017. He not at all obtained to play any match, nonetheless that two-year stint launched a change in his cricket. He realised that being an opener should not be going to get him recognition and on the age of 24, he decided to fluctuate his recreation and started batting throughout 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 acquired right here the dip.

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

As an opener this can be very robust to get into any IPL workers. I was successfully aware. There was a dip moreover. Post 2017, I was not able to hold out successfully. I labored on my experience. As a cricketer, the work not at all stops. You should improve day-to-day. It was not a psychological blockage, nonetheless I was not able to adapt to my new perform,” he says.

Growing up, Jitesh not at all had a coach nonetheless he found a mentor and a pal in Ruchir Mishra, a Nagpur-based cricket journalist, who handed away in the midst of the pandemic two years previously.

“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 12 months, Jitesh was often called up as cowl for Sanju Samson in the midst of the T20 assortment in direction of Sri Lanka. Jitesh moreover had an excellent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for Vidarbha, scoring 224 runs in ten video video games at a strike price 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 may also be like his six-hitting.

“In the varsity workers alternative, they requested if anyone may maintain. I raised by hand and picked up the ball, actually increased than our ex-keeper. Before that, I used to face 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 most likely not planning to play cricket to altering his batting trend to show into an affect hitter, it’s been some journey.