'God has a bigger plan': Jitesh Sharma on omission from India squad for West Indies tour

Wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma has been a revelation in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Plying his trade for Punjab Kings (PBKS) since the 2022 edition of the IPL, Jitesh has aggregated 543 runs from 26 matches at a strike-rate of 159.24.

The new BCCI selection committee headed by Ajit Agarkar recently announced the squad for India’s five-match T20I series against West Indies in the Caribbean, and while youngsters like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Tilak Varma were picked, Jitesh Sharma did not find a place in the same. Instead, the selectors went ahead with both Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson in the squad.

Jitesh opened up after his omission from the team, saying that God had bigger plans for him.

“Just one sentence, ‘God has a bigger plan for me’,” Jitesh was quoted as saying by Cricket.com.

After Sanju Samson was injured earlier this year, Jitesh was roped in as replacement for the Kerala batter for the limited-overs series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand, but did not get a game.

Jitesh spoke on his conversations with head coach Rahul Dravid.

“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,” added the 29-year-old.