Jitesh Sharma was never desperate to play for India: Dinesh Karthik

Former India cricketer Dinesh Karthik has praised wicketkeeper batter Jitesh Sharma, saying that he was never desperate to play for India. Jitesh has recently made a comeback to the Indian team on the back of his phenomenal performances for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in their victorious campaign of the Indian Premier League 2025 (IPL 2025).

He played several crucial knocks for his team lower down the order, giving the perfect finish to the innings time and again. Recently, Dinesh Karthik revealed that Jitesh was never too desperate to play for India but as soon as he realised that he was on the fringes after his terrific performances for Punjab Kings, it affected his performance.

“He was never someone who was desperate to play for India. And he was very free and he went about playing very confidently for Punjab Kings, and then made it to the Indian team. And then he knew that he was on the fringes. That's when he became desperate. That kind of filtered into his performances,” Karthik told Cricbuzz.

Furthermore, Karthik also shared that Jitesh was keen to become a better finisher for RCB and how he helped him unlock his true potential.

“What he wanted to work on was how do I finish a game? How do I get the team to above par? So he was playing a lot of cameos, never knowing how to get that big innings that was required to win a game or take the team far in the first innings. I kind of know what it takes to do that. With the skills he had, there was so much potential that I just needed to unlock it,” he added.

Under the guidance of Karthik, who serves as the batting coach of RCB, Jitesh flourished as the finisher as he amassed 261 runs from 11 innings at an average of 37.28 and a strike rate of 176.35. His best innings came against LSG, as his breathtaking 85* (33) helped RCB chase down 228 in just 18.4 overs and finish in top two of the points table.

Meanwhile, Jitesh last played for India in January 2024 against Afghanistan and has scored 100 runs from seven T20Is so far. However, he will have to fight for the wicketkeeper’s slot in the playing XI during the Asia Cup 2025 as Sanju Samson is already India’s preferred wicketkeeper choice from a long time.