In 2021, Jitesh Sharma was the talk of the town.
Guess why? He smacked 18 sixes in the 2021 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and scored 214 runs at a strike rate of 235. He did it with relative ease, and that kind of was the tipping point for the world to stop and take notice of him. Punjab Kings (PBKS) jumped the queue to get the talent at a base price of just INR 20 lakhs.
Over the next two Indian Premier League (IPL) seasons, the Vidarbha wicket-keeper hogged much of the limelight for his brilliance down the order. In just 25 matches, the right-hander was at his absolute best, scoring 520 runs at 165.5.
What made him special was that he could find boundaries at a rate that only a few could imagine. His balls per boundary (4.5) were only bettered by two other wicketkeeper batters in the country – Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant.
When Pant’s form saw a dip, and later he suffered an injury, it was pretty obvious as to why Jitesh was India’s first-choice wicketkeeper. He had everything that India needed – glovework behind the stumps, a good striker of the ball and, more importantly, someone with immediate impact.
It was the concoction of a perfect Indian wicketkeeper.
Everything worked well in his favour, including an aggregate of 100 runs at a strike rate of 147.1. That was what he did the best: strike the heavy ball. It was evident even at the international level when he found a boundary every 4.5 deliveries. That’s stuff made of dreams.
But then the 2024 IPL has hit him like a truck.
Like a flick of a switch, his fortunes have turned. Since making his India debut, Jitesh has gone from one of the hottest prospects in the country to becoming one of the most disappointing performers.
In this IPL, for a minimum of 100 balls, Jitesh has the lowest batting average (16). But there must be a context set for his poor batting returns. Amongst all the teams in this year’s competition, PBKS are the only side with a top three averaging under 20.
Under 20. That’s how bad their top-order has been in this year’s competition. Their top three batters have only scored 453 runs in IPL 2024, the lowest yet again.
That has, in return, put a lot of pressure on the middle-order to come up clutch.
There are two ways of looking at this if you are a player, a) it gives you the opportunity to become a hero, and b) you really can’t do anything when top-order isn't functioning. But that’s where Jitesh has continually disappointed with expectations.
Before the clash against Gujarat Titans on Sunday (April 21), Jitesh averaged just 16 in this year’s competition. Now, people would quickly point out that they shouldn’t look at Jitesh’s average; the strike rate matters more with players like him.
That’s true, and hence, it is even more disappointing that Jitesh had only struck at 127.8 coming into the clash against GT. The wicketkeeper batter was dismissed thrice for a single-digit score (9 against MI, 6 against LSG and 9 against DC).
Furthermore, he’s only played two innings this year with a strike rate of over 151.47. If you were wondering what those numbers are, that is his mean strike rate in his IPL career. Everything that seemed to be working in his favour started to take the route out.
So, there was a lot of pressure on the Vidarbha man to overturn his fortunes. The whole world was tumbling before him, but there was that tiny hope that Jitesh would climb out of that rut.
The situation demanded that he did.
He walked in earlier than usual, at 6.3 overs, and the situation was tailor-made for him. Punjab were 63/2, and three spinners were going to bowl a chunk of those overs – Noor Ahmad, Rashid Khan and Sai Kishore.
If you look at the numbers historically, spin has been one of Jitesh’s strongest points. Over the last two seasons of IPL before 2024, he was not only averaging 28.71 but also striking at 144.6. Even the false shot percentage was always around 20%, which meant he was good at playing spin.
In front of him were going to be only spin, and it couldn’t have gotten any better. From the first three balls, Jitesh even rotated the strike regularly. When Jitesh smashed Sai Kishore for a six, it felt like his fortunes were changing and changing quickly.
But like it has happened all this season, he got out at the worst opportune moment – two deliveries after smashing the left-arm spinner. His season just went from bad to worse, with a 12-ball 13.
The bad part about this: his numbers this year are quite terrible against pace and spin. If you look at it microscopically, he has struggled big time against pace this year (54 off 59 balls) with five dismissals.
But the worst part is that he isn’t any good against spin either, with an average of just 23, with three dismissals. There is an evident pattern. Three of his eight dismissals this year have come against short balls, where he only strikes at 88. One of the strongest suits for Jitesh has been hitting down the ground.
Time and again, the bowlers have peppered him with short deliveries, which has taken away the strength from him. It is evidently visible in the catch map below, where the right-hander, in a bid to break the shackles, has ended up hitting the ball straight to the fielders.
The alarming part though about all of this is that he has been dismissed twice this year to full tosses, striking at just 83, failing to smash even the easiest of deliveries.
Jitesh’s terrible form has come at a cost for the Punjab Kings, and it could even end his 2024 T20 World Cup dream, for the competition has been such.
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