NEW DELHI: Before Jitesh Sharma became one of India's most exciting wicketkeeper-batters, cricket wasn't even part of his plan. In fact, his childhood dream was to join the Indian Air Force. But as fate would have it, one random school trial in Maharashtra changed everything.

Speaking exclusively to Sports Yaari, Jitesh revealed how a casual decision taken with his school friends set him on the path to professional cricket.

"When I started, I actually didn't want to become a cricketer at all," Jitesh smiled. "I always wanted to go to the Air Force - a lot of people know this; it's even on social media. In our Maharashtra board schools, if you represented the state, you used to get 4% extra marks. So my friends said, 'Let's go, there's a school trial happening.' I went along just for that reason."

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That trial turned into a life-changing moment. "Our school team was quite strong, and I went with three of my friends - Pravesh, Shubham, and Kamal. Out of the four of us, only I got selected," he recalled. "After that, I started playing at the state level, and that's when my cricket journey really began."

With no formal coaching at the time, Jitesh turned to an unlikely mentor - YouTube.

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"Because I didn't have a coach, YouTube became my first coach," he said. "I used to watch videos of Rohit Sharma. Back then, he had just started playing, and I really liked his batting style. Before that, I was a big fan of Adam Gilchrist - I loved watching him bat. But as Rohit Bhai's career grew and I was around 19–20 years old, I started studying his batting closely."

The admiration soon turned into inspiration. "I used to try to copy his batting," Jitesh laughed. "But honestly, I wasn't worthy of copying him just by watching videos. I would try to bat like him and end up getting out! Eventually, I realised you can't just imitate someone like Rohit Sharma - you can only learn from him."

"But the journey has been long. Now I hit long sixes, planting flags all around the world. Every over seems short. It's been a beautiful journey from YouTube learning to this level," he Jitesh added.