In late 2024, during his first meeting with Andy Flower and Mo Bobat, Jitesh Sharma was asked a direct question: "What are your weaknesses?"
"I tend to struggle against the short ball," he had replied without hesitation.
Jitesh could have kept his secret hidden, but that isn't his style. He talked about his weakness with rare clarity and self-awareness, without being defensive. What surprised the coaches was hearing a fringe Indian cricketer speak so unreservedly about his shortcomings.
But being a straight-shooter comes with inherent risks, as Jitesh may have lately discovered. Teams can line you up and test your own vulnerabilities. Like they have in IPL 2026, with pace-on and hard-length deliveries.
And sometimes, it isn't just the opposition teams that are keeping an ear out.
Recently, his comments about Vaibhav Sooryavanshi not being "professional" enough went viral after being stripped of context. Many on social media interpreted the words as a sign of insecurity on the part of a senior player about a 15-year-old prodigy. In reality, Jitesh had spoken with affection, and from the familiarity of having seen the "child" behind the hype in an increasingly professional world.
One character trait shines through in these examples: the willingness to say things as he sees them. But it's a trait that can easily become your enemy when you hit the lowest of lows.
Like his jokey wish for a top-order collapse to be able to rescue the team, which is now thrown up against him because his numbers this season make for grim reading: eight innings for just 64 runs, at a strike rate of 108.47.
There has been a pattern to his struggles, a glimpse of which we saw in the previous game against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) when Jitesh was late on a pull off Prince Yadav that he top-edged to Rishabh Pant. Or in the game prior to that in Ahmedabad, where he nicked a hard-length Jason Holder delivery outside off after being rushed into his stroke.
In IPL 2026, he has been dismissed six times by pace-on, hard-length deliveries. He averages just 2.5 and strikes at 55.6 against this variety of bowling. And that has contributed to him having his poorest IPL season yet. Among batters to have faced at least 50 balls this season, only Axar Patel has a poorer strike rate (74.60) than Jitesh.
In another setup, these are numbers that would be viewed with a lot of concern, to the point that he might have been out of the XI. But because Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have had all their top-order batters, sans Jacob Bethell, in form, Jitesh hasn't got to a point of no-return just yet. Which is not to suggest that it has gone unnoticed.
"Jitesh is a very sorted individual. He knows it's not by chance that he's played for the country and been part of IPL squads for so long," assistant coach Malolan Rangarajan had said prior to the LSG game. "He played an integral part for us last year as well [261 runs at a strike rate of 176.35 as RCB won the title].
"The messaging to Jitesh is that he's very aware of what he can do to help the team in any situation he goes in. That's all he's been focusing on and that's what we've been trying to provide for him in training sessions, understanding the situations he's likely to go in and how he can impact the game for us."
RCB's management trusts Jitesh, and his batting slump, fortunately, hasn't affected his wicketkeeping. Rajat Patidar, the captain, has on a number of occasions spoken of how having Jitesh to bounce ideas off has helped him tactically. And in any case, replacing him isn't straightforward.
The only other first-XI keeper in their squad - Phil Salt - is nursing a finger injury and isn't back from England, where he had gone to get scans, yet. The other one in their reserves - Jordan Cox - is yet to get a game. If Cox finds a way in, RCB will perhaps have to leave out Bethell.
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Bringing in Cox, hypothetically speaking, would have an effect elsewhere. Devdutt Padikkal, having his best IPL season as a No. 3, will have to open with Virat Kohli, and Venkatesh Iyer - used as an impact sub in just two games to arrest batting slides - has to come in at No. 3.
This kind of late-season shuffling is something RCB have refrained from doing under Bobat and Flower. They didn't do it even during the lows of 2024, where they had just one win in eight games before making a stirring run to the playoffs on the back of six straight wins. So there's reason to believe they will back Jitesh.
In IPL 2025, Jitesh, also the team's vice-captain, had a similar run until after the halfway mark, before launching into LSG to make a 33-ball 85 - his first IPL fifty - to chase down 228 and help RCB finish in the top two. In the final against Punjab Kings (PBKS), his ten-ball 24 was no-less significant than any of the other knocks on the night, which helped RCB post 190 and defend it.
RCB have shown patience, clarity of planning, and faith in their players. They will hope Jitesh can now repay it the same way he did last season, when the stakes were at their highest.