Asia Cup: How Jitesh Sharma kept the competition at bay

The talented wicketkeeper-finisher has charted an incredible comeback to India’s T20I team following a period of intense soul-searching which has helped him unlock his true potential... BENGALURU: T20 cricket in India is brutally competitive. The quality of players who are missing from India’s team for the Asia Cup is ample evidence. In this scenario, for a 31-year-old to secure a spot after returning a cumulative 100 runs in nine T20I matches is an incredible comeback. But then, wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma always had the potential. It was only a question of finding himself. Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Jitesh made his India T20 debut at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023 but hasn’t worn India colours since Jan last year, when he featured against Afghanistan. Much of the interval has been a period of immense soul-searching.This year saw the emergence of Jitesh 2.0 during the Indian Premier League (IPL). Besides keeping wickets and playing the role of a finisher, the Vidarbha cricketer also assumed the role of stand-in skipper for eventual champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) when Rajat Patidar was injured. Playing in the middle order, he returned 261 runs at a strike rate of a staggering 176, playing some crucial knocks in his team's march to their maiden title. It was that performance that earned him his place back in the Indian team. The turnaround began long before the IPL. Jitesh privately admitted to fellow players that he had to reset mentally, and one of the people who helped him during the phase was India T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav. This was around the time the T20 World Cup squad was announced. Jitesh, who didn’t make the cut, was down and out. The long haul back began with a conversation with ‘SKY’. During the team announcement earlier this week, Suryakuamar said, “Post the last T20 World Cup, we spoke a lot about our approach. We said, ‘Let’s not think about milestones, just focus on the journey’. Since then, he's been a completely different cricketer — slow and steady. The way he performed in the IPL and the domestic tournaments he played, he's done really well and has earned his spot.” In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Jitesh returned 135 runs in six outings at a strike rate of 225. His mentor and batting coach at RCB, Dinesh Karthik, told TOI that he always saw potential in Sharma. “Right from the outset, I was very sure Jitesh was someone who would come back into the Indian team and show his skills as a finisher,” said Karthik. “I think he did quite well in his first stint at IPL, but when the World Cup was around the corner, he put more pressure on himself than he had to and that kind of hindered his performances.” In the off-season, Jitesh worked with Karthik to iron out issues, both mentally and gamewise. “He was clear that he needed to target IPL and make sure he won the competition for the team,” said Karthik. “He was very conscious and very vocal about it. And that was the starting point. It takes a lot of courage for someone to be so honest about a situation like that. And that’s the one thing Jitesh does have in abundance — courage and belief in his skill and at times, admitting to his mistakes as well.” On his work behind the scenes, Karthik said, “The first thing we worked on was how he can adapt to various situations because he’s got the skill. It was all about understanding how it needs to be done at the back end of an innings... the areas he should target, and the positions he should be getting into. It was very easy as a coach because of how malleable he was in his mind and how willing he was to work and do whatever it took to understand how to win a game or how to set a total up that could be above par in most cases." Karthik says Jitesh hasn’t grown just as a batter but also as a leader and player with intense game awareness. “He is a leader,” the former India wicketkeeper said. “When given the opportunity, when Rajat Patidar was injured, he just took over and did a wonderful job with the gloves and with the bat. I’m very excited to see how well he does for India because he has all the tools at his disposal. He simply must understand that he has all it takes to do well in international cricket.”