Jitesh Sharma has been dropped from India squad for the upcoming WT20 in India. He was part of the last 2 T20I series against Australia and South Africa. He also featured in all matches in the recent South Africa series. In the 5th match, Sanju Samson returned to the side and did well at the top while Jitesh could not get batting. In the second innings, India made Sanju Samson keep wickets instead of Jitesh Sharma. This move indicated that India might be preferring Sanju Samson as keeper for WT20.
Ajit Agarkar in press conference did tell that they would like a wicket-keeper at the top of the order so Sanu Samson will be the first choice keeper for India in WT20. Kishan has been in stunning form and the combination meant Jitesh had to miss out.
Ishan Kishan's return meant that Jitesh Sharma missed out from the 15-man squad, despite impressing with both bat and gloves. In 12 T20I innings, the keeper batter has struck at 151.40. The 32-year-old often comes in to bat in the final overs of the innings and has played some valuable knocks in his last 4 matches.
Jitesh last 4 T20 matches
22* (13) vs Australia
3 (4) vs Australia
10 (5) vs South Africa
27 (17) vs South Africa
Ishan Kishan who replaced Jitesh Sharma has been in stunning form in the domestic circuit scoring 517 runs in 10 matches at a very high strike rate of 197.33 and an average of 57.44. He also led Jharkhand to the SMAT Title. One added advantage Kishan provides is his flexibility. He can slot it even at top of the order or middle, while jitesh has primarily only played at lower middle order. Jitesh did not do much wrong but Ishan Kishan’s recent form has tilted the selection to his way.
India’s squad for T20 World Cup 2026 and New Zealand T20Is: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Axar Patel (vice-captain), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (wk), Washington Sundar, Ishan Kishan, Rinku Singh.
