Asia Cup 2025: 'Jitesh Sharma was never someone who was desperate to play for India' - Former India wicketkeeper lauds RCB star

Dinesh Karthik got the opportunity to work closely with Jitesh Sharma during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. While Karthik served as the batting coach and mentor for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Sharma played as the wicketkeeper-batter in all but one of the franchise's matches this season. The latter's batting exploits in the death overs played a crucial role in helping RCB lift the coveted title for the first time in 18 years.

Sharma made it to the Indian T20I team after impressive performances for Punjab Kings (PBKS) in IPL 2023. However, he lost his place in the side after dismal performances in IPL 2024. The 31-year-old was roped in by RCB for INR 11 crore at the IPL 2025 mega-auction and a brilliant season helped him return to the national team for the upcoming Asia Cup.

Karthik said that Sharma was never too desperate to play for India. However, when he got picked in the national team for the first time, he became anxious, and it adversely affected his performances.

“He was never someone who was desperate to play for India. And he was very free and he went about playing very confidently for Punjab Kings, and then made it to the Indian team. And then he knew that he was on the fringes. That's when he became desperate. That kind of filtered into his performances,” Karthik told Cricbuzz.

What he wanted to work on was how do I finish a game: Dinesh Karthik

Karthik mentioned that Sharma wanted to hone his finishing skills during IPL 2025. The cricketer-turned-expert explained how he helped the Amrawati-born to play big knocks instead of being content with cameos.

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“What he wanted to work on was how do I finish a game? How do I get the team to above par? So he was playing a lot of cameos, never knowing how to get that big innings that was required to win a game or take the team far in the first innings. I kind of know what it takes to do that. With the skills he had, there was so much potential that I just needed to unlock it,” he added.