Royal Challengers Bengaluru spin-bowling coach Malolan Rangarajan backed Jitesh Sharma to find his best form ahead of its Indian Premier League (IPL 2026) match against Lucknow Super Giants here on Thursday. The wicketkeeper-batter has just 63 runs in seven outings this year, but Rangarajan was clear that the team retained faith in him.
“Obviously Jitesh hasn’t started as well as he’d or we’d like but we look at the bigger picture. We’ve been supporting him, and he’s a very sorted individual. It’s not by chance he played for the country, and he contributed for us last year as well,” Rangarajan said.
READ | LSG has ‘a lot of pride to play for’, says assistant coach Klusener
“He’s constantly looking to improve himself. The messaging from the team management is about what he can do to help the team when he goes in, and that’s what we’ve been trying to provide for him in training sessions. What is Jitesh likely to go into, how can he impact the game for us, and apply pressure on the opposition?”
Rangarajan said that the side had used its week-long break to collectively address its middle-order collapse of six for 47 against Gujarat Titans, and was now looking to move forward.
“We are always looking at how we can improve as a unit, and the communication has been in line with those things. Our focus is now on this next game against LSG, we’re not going to go far beyond that and not looking back either,” he said.
He also backed the RCB batting group to adapt to the conditions at the Ekana Stadium, which have been more bowler-friendly than other venues in this IPL.
“I think we pride ourselves on adapting and assessing the conditions. We played the final last year on a slightly tacky pitch. We ended up scoring 250 runs this year against Chennai Super Kings, but we forget how hard the wicket was to bat on in the first six overs. So as a batting unit, we really pride ourselves on our ability to assess and our adaptability,” he said.
Published on May 06, 2026