Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) wicket-keeper batter Jitesh Sharma is having an IPL 2026 season to forget, when it comes to his form with the bat. Despite featuring in every match for a high-flying RCB side, Jitesh has managed just 64 runs in eight innings so far. On Thursday, RCB suffered their second defeat in a row, at the hands of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), and Jitesh’s performances came under the scanner. Former India cricketer Ambati Rayudu stated that Jitesh had not worked on the technical flaws in his game.
In particular, Rayudu pointed out Jitesh’s weakness against shorter deliveries.
“I think he (Jitesh) had a great opportunity to come back sharp after the small break that they had, but he just seems to be getting late on short balls. That’s an area he could have worked on in this gap, and I don’t think he did,” Rayudu said, speaking on ESPNcricinfo.
RCB fans, how concerning is Jitesh Sharma’s form? pic.twitter.com/nvK7TJDm1J
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) May 7, 2026
“The same thing is happening again and again, and it’s not a good sign because IPL matches come really fast. If you have a weakness that is as profound as what we are seeing with Jitesh, it becomes very hard to compensate for it or improve during the tournament because there are not many practice sessions and not much time now,” he added.
Bought for Rs 11 crore, in IPL 2025, Jitesh had played a scintillating 85* off 33 balls at the Ekana Cricket Ground to fire RCB to victory over LSG. However, in the same fixture in IPL 2026, he could muster just 1 run as RCB lost by 9 runs.
Jitesh’s 64 runs so far have come at a strike-rate of just 108.47, a massive drop-off from the 176.35 that he was hammering at last year. His best score of IPL 2026 so far is 23.
The poor form of the wicket-keeper batter has brought questions over his place in the side, with the playoff race heating up.
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