India’s squad for the upcoming ODIs against England and the Champions Trophy 2025 were announced on Saturday and some of the selections left everyone shocked. Batter Shubman Gill was named as skipper Rohit Sharma‘s deputy in the series over all-rounder Hardik Pandya. Apart from this, another big shock came in the form of Sanju Samson‘s exclusion from the squad. Despite giving breakthrough performances in both ODI and T20I cricket in 2024, Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul were chosen over Samson as India’s wicketkeeping options for the tournament.
Samson hammered three centuries in five T20Is he played in 2024. In his last ODI appearance for India, which came against South Africa in December 2023, he scored 108 runs.
Despite these stats, he has been snubbed from India’s ODI squads while he has found a spot in the five-match T20I series against England.
Samson’s position in the Indian team has always been an inconsistent one. However, the wicketkeeper-batter has always found support from India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir. Amid his exclusion from the ODIs, Gambhir’s old remark on Samson resurfaced on the internet.
In an old interaction with ESPNCricinfo in 2020, Gambhir backed Samson for a position in the Indian team. “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 be the No.1 batter in the future,” Gambhir had told ESPNCricinfo.
Gautam Gambhir was criticising selectors, Coach, Captain etc before for not selecting Sanju Samson
He is Head coach now but still Sanju is not selected. Does he speak about it now!? #ChampionsTrophy
— Veena Jain (@DrJain21) January 18, 2025
“Unfortunately, we haven’t backed him till now. People sitting in those big rooms, the selection committee should be scratching their hair ‘Why wasn’t Sanju Samson part of the T20 team or the last World Cup?’,” he added.
According to a report by Dainik Jagran, Gambhir once again backed Samson for a spot in the ODIs and the Champions Trophy but Rohit and chief selector Ajit Agarkar opted for Pant and Rahul.
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