Who is Jitendra Bhatawadekar? Rohit Sharma stuns Aamir Khan & SKY with unknown player in Dream11 IPL 2025 promo

Mayank Bande

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Who is Jitendra Bhatawadekar? Rohit Sharma stuns Aamir Khan & SKY with unknown player in Dream11 IPL 2025 promo image

The 2025 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) reached the playoffs stage, where several overseas players had to be replaced due to national team commitments. 

Like the other teams, the Mumbai Indians (MI) brought in replacements. Jonny Bairstow came in for the departing Ryan Rickelton, both as an opener and as the team's wicketkeeper.

Bairstow played his first match in the Eliminator, opening alongside Rohit Sharma as the duo put up an impactful opening partnership of 84 runs against Gujarat Titans (GT).

MI's social media soon celebrated the moment with an appreciation post mentioning the name 'Jitendra Bhatawadekar' instead of Bairstow, with a caption 'IYKYK' (If You Know You Know) 

For those not aware, the name had become viral, thanks to a Dream 11 promo before the 2025 season where Rohit Sharma and Ranbir Singh teamed up to compete against India's T20I captain, Suryakumar Yadav and Aamir Khan.

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In the promo, both cricketers read out big names from each of their teams. Rohit, being his usual self, named an unknown player, 'Jitendra Bhatwadekar', in his team, which left both Aamir Khan and SKY stunned. See who he was talking about below.

Who is Jitendra Bhatwadekar? Is Rohit Sharma's unknown player real?

This came after a prequel promo for the IPL 2025 season that Dream 11 had released where Aamir Khan and Ranbir Kapoor get into a fight before teaming up with Surya and Rohit for the fantasy battle.

In the follow-up promo released by Dream 11, Aamir first picked Jasprit Bumrah in his team which was followed by Ranbir picking Rohit Sharma.

They went on to pick Rishabh Pant. Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav respectively before Rohit came up with Jitendra's name that shocked both Khan and Yadav.

Turns out, Sharma had no idea what he was talking about and took a random name to confuse their opponent, who thought he was probably a relatively lesser known domestic player who plays Ranji Trophy, however, no such player exists.

See the fun promo below:

Mayank Bande

Mayank Bande has been a content producer at The Sporting News since 2023 and has extensive experience in cricket writing. His work has previously appeared on platforms like OneCricket and Last Word on Sports. Beyond cricket, Mayank closely follows football as an FC Barcelona supporter, along with tennis and Olympic sports. Despite holding a degree in Business Administration, he chose to pursue a career in sports, bringing sharp analysis to his writing as someone who once played cricket.