He earned his maiden national team call-up against Australia in December 2023.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) player Jitesh Sharma recalled his maiden Team India call-up amidst the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL 2025). The 31-year-old revealed how he was called up all of a sudden to replace Sanju Samson in India’s squad due to his unfortunate knee injury. He received a call from an Indian selector amidst his practice session.
“I came in as a replacement in the Indian team when Sanju (Samson) bhai had a knee injury. While I was running on the ground, I got a call from XYZ, who 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,” he said in a video shared by the RCB on their official YouTube channel.
Notably, the wicketkeeper-batter earned his maiden national team call-up for the home T20I series against Australia in December 2023. Previously, he featured in India’s gold medal-winning squad in the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou.
The RCB batter shared that he was a bit nervous on the first day of practice. It was unbelievable for him to don that Indian jersey and join star players like Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya alongside head coach Rahul Dravid.
“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,” stated Jitesh.
The RCB finisher has put on 100 runs in seven T20I matches at a strike rate of 147.05 so far.
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The RCB added him to their squad by spending a whopping INR 11 crores in the IPL 2025 player auction. He has notched up 88 runs in six matches this season so far at a strike rate of 154.39.
The Bengaluru franchise, led by their newly appointed skipper Rajat Patidar, also started off their campaign brilliantly. They have breached the home grounds of Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians to win all of their away matches till now.
With four victories in six matches, they are currently positioned in third place in the IPL 2025 points table. The Men in Red will go head-to-head with Punjab Kings at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on April 18.
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