'Quite disheartening': Former India player reacts to Sanju Samson's exclusion for Australia series

After their success in 2023 Asia Cup, India will now take on Australia in a three-match series as they try to finalise their combinations for the upcoming Cricket World Cup. Ahead of this series, the Indian selectors announced a 15-member squad. Notably, the squad has been divided into two sets for the three-match series. For the first two matches, key India players Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, and Kuldeep Yadav have been rested. KL Rahul will lead the side in the first two matches and a number of young players including Ruturaj Gaikwad and Tilak Varma have been included. R Ashwin is one big inclusion for these matches. Sanju Samson, the talented wicketkeeper-batter, has not found a place in the squad and it has led to plenty of debate. On Samson’s omission, former India cricketer Robin Uthappa took to X (formerly Twitter) and shared his thoughts: “No one would wanna be in Sanju’s shoes right now!!”

No one would wanna be in Sanju’s shoes right now!! 🤯#madness

— Robbie Uthappa (@robbieuthappa) September 19, 2023

Uthappa went on to add: “The justification could be that even if he was in the squad he wouldn’t get a game. But not even being in the squad would be quite disheartening.”

The justification could be that even if he was in the squad he wouldn’t get a game. But not even being in the squad would be quite disheartening.

— Robbie Uthappa (@robbieuthappa) September 19, 2023

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Robin Uthappa is not the only one who expressed his thoughts over Samson’s exclusion. Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan too was not very happy with the events. He said, “If I’m in place of @IamSanjuSamson right now, I will be very disappointed…” Sanju Samson reacted, albeit in a muted manner, when he posted a photo of himself wearing the Indian cricket colours on Instagram. His caption simply read: “It is what it is!! I choose to keep moving forward.” Sanju Samson had travelled to Sri Lanka as a backup for KL Rahul, who was initially included in the squad but was not fully fit. However, he did not get a game as Ishan Kishan was the preferred option in the middle order before KL Rahul made a strong comeback during the Super 4 stage after recovering from his injury layoff. Rahul slammed a ton and was quite neat with the wicketkeeping gloves as well. With an injury to Shreyas Iyer, the Indian selectors could well opt for KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan as the two middle order options.