Responsibility and the “love for chai” - Jitesh Sharma on his special bond with Rajat Patidar

Jitesh Sharma and Rajat Patidar were pivotal to RCB’s memorable title run in IPL 2025, and behind their success was a friendship built over many years - one fueled by shared experiences, mutual trust and countless cups of tea.

On the latest episode of the Big Basket presents RCB Podcast, star wicket-keeper batter Jitesh shined some light on how the chemistry between himself and Patidar, which stems from age group cricket days, carried on into the IPL.

Jitesh said, “We share some special bond because we play for Central Zone, we have something very common - the coach, Chandrakant Pandit. He was in our state for three years now he has gone to their state. He is a very strict coach, in a good way. When he would do something, it would become a topic. I have known him for a long time, we played age group cricket together, we were in the same zone.”

Beyond cricket, their relationship goes deeper - built on shared rituals such as their mutual love for tea.

He added, “We share similar hobbies, like tea. We both love tea. If we talk, people will say two crazy folks are speaking something, even though we don't know what we talk about sometimes. Silly talks, sometimes we gossip about people, it’s good fun. Before a match, we have a routine where we go to some cafe and sit, it’s like a ritual between games.”

Jitesh, who struck at 176.35 in IPL 2025, turned out to be an impressive signing for RCB, and he further spoke about how the friendship he shares with Rajat translated into achieving bigger things for the franchise.

He said, “We both aren’t worried about results, we believe in the process. Big blessing is that DK (Dinesh Karthik is teaching us). Rajat and I think we are core members of the team. We take responsibility, whenever we’re batting, we speak that there is no one behind us or ahead of us, it’s us both. We have to take all the responsibility, if someone doesn’t do well, it’s on them. Only both of us can take the responsibility that most others are scared to take up, we talk like that, fully 100%”