CHENNAI: From the outset, 64 runs in three T20I innings — 21.33 average and 164.1 strike rate — might not scream 'wow'. That is Jitesh Sharma's international career so far. However, the sample size is just too small. So is the pool of players who have been designated to do what he does for the Indian team — come in at No. 6, take on bowlers and put the team in a position of strength without taking any time to settle in.
Purely on numbers, Rinku Singh (187.5), Suryakumar Yadav (171.23) and Venkatesh Iyer (170.42) are the only frontline batters to have better SR while batting at No. 5 or below for India. Then again, the sample size is too small there as well. However, when SKY broke into the team and made that kind of impact, he showed what was possible. He is India's best T20 batter and there is a reason why he bats at No. 3/4 and still plays the way he does. If you have watched Jitesh bat in the Indian Premier League and India-Australia series, you'd know by now the promise he has shown to change the game head on.
In fact, it is one of the reasons why Punjab Kings were delighted to sign the Vidarbha batter for Rs 20 lakh in the 2022 mega auction. Cricket Strategist & Recruitment Analyst Dan Weston, who worked with the franchise, says that the then head coach Anil Kumble and scout Sankar Rajgopal deserve more credit for securing the services of Jitesh who had smashed 214 runs at an average of 53.5 and SR of 235.16 in the 2021-22 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. "He (Anil) and Sankar probably had a little bit more knowledge about Jitesh than some other teams because from the start he was always a player that was mentioned in our planning even when I got there. For me, when you're recruiting a player, you have to identify what they're good at and give them the opportunity to showcase those skills as much as possible. With a player like Jitesh, you don't really want to change a great deal of what they've been doing well already in terms of their role in the entry point in the beginning. You just have to try and find what unknown skill set and what you think they can become. But ultimately the proof really of everything is in there, what they've done so far in their career and in this role," says Weston, who runs Sports Analytics Advantage.
And the result is there to see. Among Indian middle-order batters who played a minimum of five games in 2022, only Dinesh Karthik (183.33) had a better SR than Jitesh (163.63). In 2023, Jitesh continued to strike at 156.06 while scoring 309 runs. For India, too, he is playing a similar role — something that had not been designated in the past where they often relied on the top three-four to score the bulk of the runs. With the team undergoing transition, a new generation of players is coming through who are playing a brand of cricket that is often looked at as high risk. Weston attributes it to the change in mindset. "I think it's very easy for a No. 5 batter, particularly when early wickets are lost, they have the mindset where they want to consolidate and kind of almost chew some balls just to try and create an impression of some stability. But then that could be a higher risk option too because if you're actually putting pressure on your teammates to start hitting, if you're not accepting yourself. So for someone like Jitesh and to an extent Rinku Singh now as well, he's obviously done extremely well over the last year or something, it's a mentality thing.
"I think as much it's the fearless mentality and I think sometimes that that is something that's an inherent characteristic of an individual and can't necessarily be taught. It's very difficult. There are players who you can teach that to. Certainly, those players I've worked with in England who I've gone through analysis with and show them quite what they need to do and how they can upskill to a certain strike rate. However, not all players are willing to listen to that or will take you on board. It's actually quite rare to find players who can flip sort of 180 degrees really into becoming a really aggressive player from maybe a conservative player."
In both the games against Australia, Jitesh has hit a boundary within the first four balls he faced, and his balls/boundary is less than five. It is the same in his IPL career as well. Weston believes that when a player moves up the level in terms of quality of opponents, the SR or boundary percentage does not change that much except for the number of times they get out. "The difference in standard is often just reflected in a much lower balls/dismissal than the reduction of SR. And then it's down to the individual to find solutions of how they can find lower risk options while still playing an attacking brand of cricket. Now, there are different ways you can play an attacking brand of cricket. It's not necessarily all boundary domination. It's something that I work with players a lot in England. Instead of maybe like a premeditated nudge into the gap to the get off strike, which is an option that the bowler is going to be delighted with every single time, where are the pockets for boundaries which are at a fairly low risk or even just a really hard run two, which gets under the bowler's skin and that gives you a better chance of hitting a boundary on the next one, that side of the thing. So it is really about finding solutions as you progress up the levels."
Jitesh is in a peculiar position. His record in List-A is not impressive, he has played three first-class cricket in six years. But in the shortest format, unless Rishabh Pant makes a comeback and has a good IPL, he could go into the T20 World Cup next year as India's first-choice keeper-batter. Despite having the likes of KL Rahul or Ishan Kishan, there are not many who play the role Jitesh does in the middle-order and don the gloves in T20s. Weston feels that it all might come down to how he approaches a lean run and whether the selectors and team management back him, giving a longer rope to succeed. "There's been examples where Glenn Maxwell hasn't done well in an entire IPL, yet one cannot say that he's not a world class player. Of course, he's a world class player, but with additional risk comes additional volatility. So you have to be very patient with players who play an attacking game. But I think as well these players reflect the new breed of T20 cricket. I think most countries — India, England and Australia too — are too kind of preoccupied with players playing multiple formats when they actually should be looking for that specialist more. And I think that Jitesh is a really good example of that new breed of player."
With every opportunity, the 30-year-old has reiterated what Weston says. On Sunday, he got out 16-ball 24 against Australia and India won by six runs, but there is a bigger picture to be seen. Whether he will succeed in South Africa or not is not clear, but one thing is sure. Jitesh has shown enough to be given a consistent run at the role where he is capable of excelling at.