NAGPUR: Jitesh Sharma's affair with T20 cricket is not new. He has established himself one of the very few Vidarbha batters who can tonk the ball from the word go. Whenever he has made his presence felt, his teams have been benefited in the shortest format. Last season, he topped six hitters' chart in Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy (SMAT), which propelled him into making his IPL debut for the Punjab Kings.
The 28-year-old was one of the reasons Vidarbha played the semifinal in the shortest format for the first time. Once again, the onus will be on Jitesh as Vidarbha gets ready to face Assam in the SMAT 2022 opener in Rajkot on Tuesday.
Vidarbha have their best batting line-up available for the tournament. With Atharva Taide at the top, Jitesh and Apoorv Wankhade in the middle and skipper Akshay Wadkar as anchor, Vidarbha look upbeat for a winning start.
Though the eyes will be on Jitesh, who is rated as the best T20 player in Vidarbha, an exciting debut of Aman Mokhade is also on the cards. Aman and Atharva will challenge Assam's new ball with their eye-pleasing timing.
Vidarbha coach Sanjeev Sharma would want their wicketkeeper Jitesh and opener Taide, both part of Punjab Kings in IPL, to bring their big tournament experience into play.
Since Jitesh's IPL exploits with the bat and behind the stumps had impressed the likes of Virender Sehwag and Punjab coach Anil Kumble and remained a social media sensation for the entire IPL season, Vidarbha coach would want Jitesh to lead from the front and inspire results.
Impact Player to give Vidarbha bowling depth
The BCCI has brought in another twist to its traditional T20 annual event - SMA Trophy. It has decided to give teams an option of introducing a substitute in between a match in order to make the event more exciting. This concept will be termed as Impact Player.
Like many big teams, Vidarbha is also going to benefit from it considering it also has huge bench strength. Players like attacking batter Siddesh Wath and allrounder Sooraj Rai are likely to be used as Impact Player, giving the skipper Akshay Wadkar a passage to have bowling depth and replace a bowler with either of these two.
