Sanju Samson great player, like elder brother: Jitesh Sharma

Jitesh Sharma kept out Sanju Samson for the fourth T20I in a row when India played South Africa in Cuttack on December 9. But Sharma has said he maintains a healthy friendship with the Kerala star.

"He is a great player," Sharma said about Sanju. "If you have to compete against him and play shoulder to shoulder, then I have to bring my A-game. I think we both are trying to play for India, not for other teams," Sharma said.

The 32-year-old has been preferred for the wicketkeeper-batter role since the third T20I in Australia. On Tuesday, he made 10 off 5 and held an unbeaten 38-run partnership with Hardik Pandya (59) to take the total to 175/6. India won the match by 101 runs.

The Gautam Gambhir-led team management has preferred Sharma over Sanju, arguably because the former has more experience batting down the order. On the other hand, Sanju is a proven opener who was forced to step into the middle order after the management chose to pair up Shubman Gill with Abhishek Sharma at the top.

Sanju was India's leading T20I run-getter in 2024 with 436 runs, including three centuries. But since he was relegated in the batting order, the former Rajasthan Royals captain has struggled for game time and runs.

Regardless, Sharma believes having Sanju in the squad is great for Team India. "I am very grateful that he is in the team and I'm under him... Frankly speaking, he is like an elder brother to me. I think because of healthy competition, your talent comes out. I think it's good for the team also.

"There is so much talent in this Indian team. You can feel it that Sanju is out and I'm playing. We are like brothers. We share lots of experience with each other. He helps me a lot whenever I do keeping or batting," Sharma said.