PBKS coach Sanjay Bangar has clarified the issue regarding the confusion surrounding Jitesh Sharma being the designated vice-captain of the side, as Sam Curran led the team during the toss to RR on Saturday, April 13 as well. Curran, who had led Punjab last year during the IPL, led the team in the absence of Shikhar Dhawan after the PBKS skipper had to miss the home match on Saturday due to an injury as well.

Notably, Jitesh Sharma had appeared for the captain’s seminar meeting and at that time, many assumed that he had been appointed the deputy to Dhawan for the 2024 season as well. However, seeing Sam Curran leading the team against RR left a lot of fans surprised as they wondered what had happened to Sharma’s position as the vice-captain of the side. Coach Bangar revealed during the post-match press conference that Jitesh Sharma isn’t the designated vice-captain of the team as well.

“Jitesh Sharma is not the designated vice-captain of the Punjab Kings. The impression might have been that due to the captain’s seminar meeting at the start of the IPL. But the thought was always that since Sam Curran had led the team in the previous season, he would be the vice-captain. Sam was late to arrive from UK and we wanted to have a few sessions with him and so we could not send him to Chennai for the inauguration of the season,” said Sanjay Bangar.

“Unfortunately we missed out on having Shikhar [tonight] because he has a shoulder injury. So, he’s likely to be out for a couple of days [games] I would say. We’ll have to wait and see how he responds to the treatment, but at the moment it seems that he could be out of action for at least seven to 10 days,” he concluded.