The squad for the upcoming ODIs against England and the Champions Trophy 2025 was announced on Saturday, and it left everyone stunned by quite a few selections. As opposed to Hardik Pandya, batter Shubman Gill was named as vice captain of team India in the series. Another big shock came with Sanju Samson’s exclusion from the squad. Unlike Samson, who performed exceedingly well in both the ODI and T20I formats in 2024, Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul rounded off India’s wicketkeeping options for the tournament.
Samson scored three centuries in the five T20Is he played for India in 2024. He scored 108 runs in his last ODI for India, against South Africa, in December 2023.
Regardless of these statistics, he has been snubbed from the Indian ODI squad while he has found a spot in the five-match T20I series against England.
There had always been an inconsistent spot for him in the Indian team as it has always worked out between him and India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir. Amidst the controversy surrounding his exclusion from ODIs, Gambhir’s old remark on Samson resurfaced on the internet.
In an old interaction with ESPNCricinfo in 2020, Gambhir backed Samson for a place in the Indian side. “You know what, if Sanju Samson is not going to play for India, it’s not Sanju Samson’s loss. It is actually India’s loss, and I hope Sanju Samson is backed the same way Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have been backed. You are losing out on a talent which probably will be the No.1 batter in the future,” had remarked Gambhir in a statement to ESPNCricinfo.
According to Gambhir, “To be very honest, we have let him down. I guess the persons sitting in those big rooms on the selection committee must be scratching their hair on ‘Why was Sanju Samson not selected into the T20 team or last World Cup?'”
According to a report by Dainik Jagran, Gambhir yet again backed Samson as a candidate to be included in the list for ODIs and the Champions Trophy, but Pant and Rahul got the nod from Rohit and chief selector Ajit Agarkar.
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