It is the dream of every budding cricketer to make his debut for the national team. Jitesh Sharma revealed how he received a call from a selector when he was picked for the Indian team for the first time. The 31-year-old made his debut for India in the 2023 Asian Games but got his bigger break later that year when he was picked for the T20I series against Australia.
Sanju Samson was ruled out with a knee injury and Jitesh was called in a replacement. Sharma has scored 100 runs in seven innings at the International level at an average of 14.29. The pugnacious batter said he didn’t get a lot of time to process the news.
Jitesh said on RCB’s YouTube Channel, “I came in as a replacement in the Indian team when Sanju bhai had a knee injury. While I was running on the ground, I got a call from XYZ called me and said, “Hey, I’m an Indian selector. We’re looking forward to you joining the Indian team, so be ready. By evening, you’ll get a call about your departure details.” I was like, “Okay.” But I didn’t even get a chance to process it.”
The wicket-keeper bat admitted he was a bit nervous when he was training with the likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya under the tutelage of former Indian coach Rahul Dravid.
He concluded, “Things moved so fast that the next day I had to go for practice. I think I was a little nervous; my hands and feet were shaking. I was a bit cold because I was wearing that Indian jersey while watching Surya Bhai and Hardik Bhai over there, and Rahul was the coach at that time. It’s a feeling you can’t really express.”
Jitesh recently scored a fine cameo of 40 runs off just 19 balls against Mumbai Indians. RCB will next take on Punjab Kings at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Friday.
