Dinesh Karthik lauds Jitesh Sharma, says he was never desperate to play for India

Royal Challengers Bengaluru batting coach Dinesh Karthik lauded Jitesh Sharma and said the wicket-keeper was never desperate to play for India. Jitesh can hit the ground running in T20Is and has come up with consistent performances.

Jitesh scored 261 runs in 11 innings of IPL 2025 at an impressive strike rate of 176.35 and thus played an instrumental role in taking RCB to glory for the first time in the tournament. The Vidarbha wicket-keeper batsman was roped in by RCB for INR 11 crore, and he was able to prove his mettle.

“I think he was never someone who was desperate to play for India. he was very free and he went about playing very confidently for Kings, and then made it to the Indian team. And then he knew that he was on the fringes when he didn’t do as well, and the T20 World Cup 2024 was around the corner. That’s when he became desperate. That kind of filtered into his performances which weren’t as good as he wanted them to be, and he put himself under immense pressure,” Dinesh Karthik said in an interview with Cricbuzz.

Karthik lauded Jitesh for being honest and wanting to improve his game.

“I was quite fond of the kid. Because he was very honest, very earnest, and wanted to really improve and do well. But I think it got to a point where he wasn’t sure how to move forward from there. I just took note of it and kept it,” Dinesh Karthik added.

The former Indian stumper said he wanted to get the best of Jitesh by giving him all the confidence at RCB.

“In many ways, I’m sure at some point of time, we were all competing to play in the Indian team and he and I were competitors. So now when roles changed and he started working with me, I think he needed to cross that mental barrier that, you know, I will give him everything possible as a coach, and he needs to trust me. And I think he had that from day one when we started practicing,” Dinesh Karthik said.

“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 concluded.

Jitesh scored 85 runs off just 33 balls in the last league stage for RCB against LSG to help the franchise finish among the top two teams.