 "Why was Sanju Samson not picked in India’s ODI squad for the South Africa series?")
Sanju Samson’s name was missing as Rishabh Pant, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Tilak Varma made a return to the Indian ODI squad on Sunday for the upcoming three-match series against South Africa, starting from 30 November in Ranchi. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who have retired from Tests and T20Is, are also a part of the ODI series, but Samson’s absence has raised a question over the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel.
With Shubman Gill out injured due to a neck injury and Shreyas Iyer still recovering from a spleen injury, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selectors had an opportunity to bring back a few batters. Pant, who last played an ODI in August 2024 against Sri Lanka, was handed a recall. Tilak and Gaikwad, who last played ODIs in 2023, are also back.
Meanwhile, Dhruv Jurel has continued to be a part of the ODIs since the Australia series. But Samson’s absence only indicates that he doesn’t feature in the ODI plans.
Kumble questions Samson’s absence
Former India captain Anil Kumble was not happy with the decision as he felt that the selectors had judged Samson based on his returns in the T20Is, which have gone down since his demotion from the opening slot to the middle-order.
“One name that I would have wanted to see was Sanju Samson as well, because I think the last ODI that he played a couple of years ago, I know he was not a part of the Australia ODI squad, but Sanju got a hundred,” Kumble said.
“So I think when you play these three different formats or two formats, you tend to mix up the form and everything else. So that is something that I think one needs to keep in mind when you are picking squads.”
Samson had made a match-winning 108 off 114 from No 3 slot in his last ODI, which was against South Africa at Paarl on 21 December 2023.
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Meanwhile, the Cricbuzz reports that Samson missed out on a spot due to the excessive competition for the top-order spots. As per Cricbuzz, selectors are only considering Samson for the top-order role in the ODIs and not the finisher’s job.
Due to the presence of Kohli, Rohit, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Gaikwad and Tilak in the squad, the selectors were not able to fit in Samson.
India squad for South Africa ODIs: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul (C) (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel
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