It has pained many Indian fans that Sanju Samson has yet again been ignored by the team management. Fans took to Twitter to express their anger and frustrations and disappointments with the team management after the Rajasthan Royals captain was not selected for the third T20I against New Zealand on Tuesday, played at McLean Park in Napier.
Samson has surprisingly been omitted from the playing XIs of this series where the seniors are rested and the management should have looked to give opportunities to the players who they feel could be part of the 2024 T20 World Cup squad.
After the first T20I was washed out, India won the second T20I on the back of Suryakumar Yadav’s century. Samson was benched then with the likes of Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan, and Deepak Hooda playing the match – the trio registered scores of 6 (13), 36 (31), and 0 (1) and were retained for the third T20I, consigning Samson to the bench again. Pant and Kishan opened the innings while Hooda was used at number 6, an out-of-position for him.
Sanju Samson has had a good year in T20Is with the Indian team – in 5 T20I innings in 2022, Sanju Samson has scored 179 runs at an average of 44 and, importantly, a strike rate of 158 – but despite this, the management stuck with Pant, who now has 5 straight single-digit scores in professional outings, and Kishan, whose strike rate has been under criticism this year.
Unsurprisingly, netizens blasted the team management for excluding Sanju Samson from the eleven from the third T20I:
Samson Leave India Asap And Join Other Boards , These Clowns @BCCI Won’t Give You Chances, They’re Just Wasting Your Talent And Your Skills , Better Play For Some Other Board
— Chinmay Shah (@chinmayshah28) November 22, 2022
What Samson has to do to make a place in playing 11?
Shame on you @BCCI#BCCI is ruining his god gifted talent.#RishabhPant#SanjuSamson pic.twitter.com/ruCMTKfbn7— YOUSAF (@ImYousaf2) November 22, 2022
Absolute Injustice to the Talent of Sanju Samson…..
Selectors Putting him in Bench again & again by avoiding his current form….!!#WeBackHim #SanjuSamson pic.twitter.com/4QrExtnVfY
— Mahi Bishnoi (SanjusamsonFan) (@Sanjusamsonf11) November 22, 2022
It’s really sad that team management forgot Sanju Samson’s innings against South Africa too soon. Just one word, Ridiculous. #INDvsNZ
— Himanshu Pareek (@Sports_Himanshu) November 20, 2022
Fans wants #SanjuSamson to be selected in playing 11 over fraud players.
Politics at its peak @BCCI 🤬🤬
Sad samson #INDvsNZ pic.twitter.com/uFFLpVyYvL— Sameer Prajapati (@SameerP14178298) November 22, 2022
India may win this bilateral series, but they have lost the respect of entire nation by not giving chances to players like Sanju Samson, Shubman Gill and Umran Malik.
Keep winning the bilaterals against NZ! We are not proud of you.#INDvsNZ#NZvsIND
— Himanshu Pareek (@Sports_Himanshu) November 22, 2022
Sanju Samson is from Kerala so he is an easy target for them. He don’t hv any lobby like Pant and Shreyas Iyer in BCCI. No Quota. Do you ICT fans think that he would hv been mistreated in the same way if he was from Mumbai or Delhi? BCCI is a RACIST organization #INDvsNZ pic.twitter.com/d6G3dNPSDX
— BRUTU (@Brutu24) November 22, 2022
No Sanju Samson, No logic. New Era but same old treatment for him.#NZvIND #NZvsIND #SportsYaari
— Manoj Dimri (@manoj_dimri) November 22, 2022
Again there’s no place for Sanju Samson in the playing 11.
India still going with Rishabh Pant. #INDvsNZ #SanjuSamson pic.twitter.com/vmBRZexXc0
— chaitali♡ॐ (@Chaitali67) November 22, 2022
New Zealand’s stand-in skipper Tim Southee won the toss and elected to bat first in the third T20I.
Teams:
India (Playing XI): Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya(c), Deepak Hooda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal
New Zealand (Playing XI): Finn Allen, Devon Conway(w), Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Adam Milne, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee(c), Lockie Ferguson
