Sanju Samson’s Replacement Advised to Stay Prepared: ‘Look Forward to Having You in Indian Team’

Sanju Samson’s Replacement Advised to Stay Prepared: The Indian cricket team enjoys a depth of talent like none of its contemporaries. With at least five decent candidates for each slot, the level of competition is stiff.

Imagine how fierce the race to the top is if a young player like Sarfaraz Khan is still unable to establish himself in the Test squad or if someone like Ruturaj Gaikwad is having difficulty breaking into the T20I setup. India's wicketkeeper is one position where the battle is genuine

While Sanju Samson has been wearing the gloves in T20Is, Rishabh Pant is the clear favourite in Test matches. India recently won the Champions Trophy, demonstrating that the KL Rahul experiment is still effective in ODIs in the actual Playing XI.

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"I came in as a replacement for player into the Indian team because Sanju Samson had a knee injury. An Indian selector called and said, 'We are looking forward to having you in the Indian team. Be ready, by evening you will get a call about when you have to leave,'" Jitesh said in a video posted by Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

"I didn't get a chance to soak in the entire selection process because everything happened very quickly. Just as I reached, the next day I had to go for practice. I was definitely nervous, my hands and legs became cold. Because to wear that Indian jersey and then Surya bhai was there, Hardik bhai was also there. Rahul [Dravid] sir was the coach at that time."

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Jitesh has played nine T20Is for India so far, scoring 100 runs at a best of 35. Jitesh has set his sights on the IPL 2025, where he is currently playing for RCB, who paid ₹11 crore to acquire him, to increase his chances. As Jitesh says, he has received so much love and admiration from playing for the franchise that it has overwhelmed him.

"When I went to play Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, people were screaming 'Jitesh-Jitesh', and 'RCB-RCB', that's when I realised that I haven't gone to a small team. It's not a trivial matter that I've come to RCB. It was a different feeling because 100-150 people were waiting for my autograph. I wasn't expecting anything like this. I had already played for India before, had done it all but even 2 people didn't come. That's when I realised that this franchise is something else," added Jitesh.

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