The 18-year-old has blazed his way through to the senior domestic side this season
Rajasthan has found another power-hitting prodigy in Kartik Sharma. Hailing from Bharatpur, a town famous for Lohagarh fort, sandstone temples and the Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary, Sharma has hit the ground running in his debut senior season.
He was surprisingly not picked for the India Under-19 team for the recent Under-19 Asia Cup and neither did his name feature in the IPL 2025 auction. A total of 26 sixes, the most by any player in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25 is good enough evidence that the 18-year-old can shine in the big leagues.
He was also Rajasthan’s highest runscorer with 445 runs from eight innings which included a 113 off 90 balls on his List-A debut against Maharashtra. The impressive thing about the knock was that Sharma accounted for 57% of Rajasthan’s total of 215 in the match.
He was also the team’s highest scorer in the quarterfinal against Vidarbha with 62 off 61 balls which consisted of two boundaries and four sixes. A big lad with tremendous wrist power, Sharma uses his high backlift and nimble footwork to pick the length of the ball. He has the knack to get underneath the ball quickly which allows him to send it over the fence with ease.
His ability to score fast runs is apparent in his debut Ranji Trophy innings where he scored 113 off 115 balls which was studded with 11 boundaries and six sixes. Senior batter Mahipal Lomror scored 300 not out in the same match as Rajasthan took a deserved first innings lead despite the draw.
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It was somewhat of a relief for Rajasthan as they were struggling in Elite Group B with just one win and three draws. The team had dropped wicketkeeper-batter Kunal Singh Rathod from the playing XI due to poor form and roped in the youngster, who was leading their Under-19 side in the Cooch Behar Trophy (four-day tournament) at that time.
Sharma had been knocking the state-team door ever since his exploits in the 2024 Vinoo Mankad Trophy, India’s premier 50-over tournament at Under-19 level. He was the top scorer in the tournament with 492 runs and even though he played just five matches, he finished 51 runs above Gujarat’s Maulyarajsinh Chavda who had played nine matches.
In Rajasthan’s fourth group game against Arunachal Pradesh in Delhi, Sharma walked in with the score at 9/2 in the second over and forged a mammoth 484 runs for the third wicket with teammates Anas. During the course of his unbeaten knock of 225 of 131 balls, the youngster clobbered 22 fours and 12 sixes. This innings helped his team post a huge total of 499/5 in 50 overs and win the match by 338 runs.
The impressive debut in the Ranji Trophy earned Sharma a place in the senior team for the 2024 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy where he once again finished top scorer for Rajasthan. He raked 201 runs from 6 innings in SMAT at an average of 33 and a superb strike rate of 167.
Sharma’s quick-scoring ability boosted Rajasthan’s net run rate, but back-to-back losses against Punjab and Bengal saw them crash out in the group stage. Even in these matches, Sharma was the top scorer for the team with knocks of 50 (34 balls) and 46(29 balls) respectively.
Splendid form will most likely prompt Rajasthan to play Sharma in the remaining Ranji group games against Vidarbha and Andhra. However, it will be interesting to see if he can land a franchise in the IPL sooner than receiving a call-up for the 2026 Under-19 World Cup.
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