Another day, another Indian cricket team squad announced and another instance of Sanju Samson not being looked at. It seems like the time is running out for Samson as far as ODI cricket is concerned as even when a second-string side is picked for two out of three matches against Australia, Samson was nowhere to be seen. With KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan being the top two options as wicketkeeper-batters in the side, it looks like just as a pure batter Samson is not being considered.
The likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav have been picked with Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya resting for the first two games, but Samson, who isn't part of the World Cup squad and was not in the Asia Cup side as well hasn't been named. And it seems like Samson will be the unfortunate one to even miss out on the Asian Games squad as the likes of Tilak and Washington Sundar will be going to China for the 19th Asian Games.
The fans were gutted for Samson as it seems like he is no longer in the scheme of things in the ODIs despite averaging 55 and having a strike rate of 104. Here are some of the reactions:
Recently, speaking exclusively to India TV, former chief selector Chetan Sharma said that Samson is behind KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan in the pecking order for the time being as a wicketkeeper batter as far as selection in ODIs is concerned. "He's very good in T20s. There's no doubt about it. He's good in ODIs also, he needed a little longer run. But at the present, he cannot get a longer run because the two guys are already performing and we hardly have any place for Sanju. So that's why he has to wait for a while," Sharma said.
Team India squad for first two ODIs: KL Rahul (w/c), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Iyer Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja (vc), Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami, Tilak Varma, Prasidh Krishna, R Ashwin, Washington Sundar
