Royal Challengers Bengaluru's ace wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma has made the formal switch from Vidarbha to Baroda on the eve of the new 2025-26 home domestic season. The 31-year-old is seeking a fresh start in red-ball cricket following limited game time with Vidarbha over the last few seasons. The move to Baroda had been said to have been on the cards for a while, with Sharma's good rapport with Baroda skipper Krunal Pandya, under whom he had played at RCB. The two of them shared a good run in RCB's championship-winning IPL 2025 season when he emerged as a reliable finisher and even led the team in Rajat Patidar's absence. Even though Sharma was a key figure in Vidarbha's white-ball teams during last season, he did not play the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy. Since Akshay Wadkar was behind the stumps and captaining the team, Jitesh was out of favour on the majority of occasions in red-ball cricket. His last outing in first-class cricket was almost 18 months ago. Since his debut in the 2015-16 season, the right-hander has played only 18 first-class games, scoring 600 runs at 24.48 with four half-centuries. Jitesh Sharma played a crucial role in RCB’s title-winning campaign Baroda would be looking for a change in fortunes following a mixed 2024-25 campaign in which they made it to the Ranji Trophy league stage, as well as the SMAT semifinals and Vijay Hazare quarterfinals. In contrast, after a stellar stint with Punjab Kings in 2023, he was given his India T20I debut at the Asian Games in October 2023 and has since appeared in nine T20Is. In IPL 2025, he was RCB's best performer, with an unbeaten 85 against Lucknow Super Giants in a game that was a do-or-die for the franchise, which took the team to the top two. Significantly, Jitesh is not the only player departing Vidarbha. Indian batter Karun Nair, who captained the team in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and had more than 800 runs in the Ranji Trophy, will be returning to Karnataka due to personal reasons. While another RCB player, Swapnil Singh, will be shifting from Uttarakhand to Tripura. Although he didn't feature for RCB during IPL 2025, he had a good domestic campaign in red-ball cricket and played for the TNPL 2025.