‘God has a bigger plan for me’ – Star PBKS batter on selection snub for West Indies tour

It seemed shocking to see that 29-year-old Jitesh Sharma was left out of India’s T20I team for the West Indies tour when the squad was revealed. The Maharashtra-born cricketer was an integral part of the India T20I team for its home series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand, but the right-handed batter was unable to get a place for the match. Notably, the wicketkeeper-batter was in excellent form for the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in both of his previous IPL seasons.

In addition, the middle-order batter is an excellent combination for India in T20Is as a wicketkeeper as well as a finisher. Jitesh, who bats primarily at positions five and below, has always been able to get the Punjab Kings off to quick starts. His 159.24 strike rate in the IPL ranks fifth among all batters with more than 500 runs. It says much concerning his power hitting as well as how it fits with his present style of T20 batting.

“Just one sentence, ‘God has a bigger plan for me’,” Jitesh Sharma talked about his exclusion from the upcoming tour of the West Indies with cricket.com, as quoted by NDTV Sports.

The more you contribute towards the win, that will be important for the team: Jitesh Sharma

The dashing batter had also further talked about how Indian head coach Rahul Dravid praised him and made him learn to win matches in tough situations. “They were quite welcoming. Rahul (Dravid) sir told me that you are doing very well and these are the kind of players that we are looking for. When I told him that I want to score big runs, he told me that at the position you play, runs don’t matter, impact matters. The more you contribute towards the win, that will be important for the team. When there’s a collapse and you go out to bat around 7-8 overs, the team will be 4-5 wickets down, so you can’t do much and just need to believe in your game. You have to take that score to a certain level so that the team can fight for it,” he added further.

Meanwhile, Jitesh Sharma has been quite reliable in this style, and his keeping abilities are also excellent. Notably, the brilliant was expected to make the squad, but it is obvious that the selectors picked Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan over him. Samson and Kishan both did wonderfully in the most recent Indian Premier League, in order there would be no particular reason for dropping them.