India’s 31-year-old wicketkeeper batter spoke about how he got his first international cap as a cover for Sanju Samson. The Indian cricket team has a depth of talent such as none of their contemporaries have. With a minimum of five good candidates per slot, the competition is strong.
If a player like Ruturaj Gaikwad is finding it difficult to make a breakthrough into the T20I unit, or a young player like Sarfaraz Khan still can’t find a place in the Test team, imagine how fierce the competition at the top is. One position for which the battle is genuine is that of India’s wicketkeeper. Rishabh Pant is the favourite odds in Tests, while, in T20Is, Sanju Samson has been wearing the gloves.
In ODIs, the KL Rahul experiment continues to pay dividends, with India having recently won the Champions Trophy. Jitesh Sharma is in a similar position. Even though he is one of the brightest wicketkeeper batsmen in the Indian cricket setup, Jitesh spends more time on the bench than in the actual Playing XI.
He and Dhruv Jurel have a pail full of potential but are at the moment lower down in the pecking order compared to Pant, Samson and Rahul. It was last January that Jitesh made his Indian debut, playing the second T20I against Afghanistan in Indore. He did not have a memorable debut, being dismissed for a duck, but the journey to his selection is something worth mentioning.
I was brought in as a stand-in player for the Indian side due to Sanju Samson’s knee injury. An Indian selector phoned and said, ‘We are eagerly waiting for you to be part of the Indian team. Get prepared, by evening you will receive a call about when you need to leave,’\” Jitesh added in a video shared by Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
