It feels like this is more or less the end of the road for Sanju Samson as far as this year’s T20 World Cup is concerned, with the tournament only three months away and the Kerala batsman being dropped from the upcoming 5-T20I series against West Indies.
BCCI Announced India’s Squad For West Indies
The five T20Is, which will follow the 3 ODIs, will begin on July 29 in Trinidad, followed by two matches in St Kitts, before the action moves to Florida in the USA for the final two matches on August 6 and 7.
The BCCI announced an 18-man squad on Thursday which sees the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav been retained over Samson.
India’s squad for 5 T20Is vs WI: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul*, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav*, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh. (*The inclusion of KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav is subject to fitness.)
Samson, who, though, is named in the ODI squad where a number of senior players are rested, smashed a 77 off 42 balls in his last T20I – vs Ireland – wasn’t part of the last two T20I vs England either.
And now this exclusion from the West Indies T20I series largely indicates the thoughts and plans of the management and selectors regarding the 27-year-old Kerala batsman, who was, ironically, hailed as one of the most elegant batsmen by skipper Rohit Sharma earlier this year when he made his return during the Sri Lanka T20I series.
The Rajasthan Royals captain was in good form in the IPL 2022, scoring 458 runs in the season at an average of 28, but a brilliant strike rate of 146 – which was better than all of KL Rahul, Sharma, Kohli, Hooda, Iyer and Kishan.
Unsurprisingly, there was a massive furore over Sanju Samson’s exclusion from the T20I squad on social media. Former cricketer Dodda Ganesh even said he was perplexed by the inclusion of Shreyas Iyer, who hasn’t been in great touch and is regularly exposed against short balls, over Samson.
“Ideally, you would want to players like Sanju Samson in the T20s. Ignoring him for Shreyas Iyer is beyond cricketing rationale,” Dodda Ganesh tweeted.
Ideally, you would want to players like Sanju Samson in the T20s. Ignoring him for Shreyas Iyer is beyond cricketing rationale #DoddaMathu #CricketTwitter #WIvIND
— ದೊಡ್ಡ ಗಣೇಶ್ | Dodda Ganesh (@doddaganesha) July 14, 2022
Here are some other fan reactions to Samson being ignored once again:
Story of giving opportunity for Sanju Samson in T20I:
1 T20 vs ZIM on 2015 July
1 T20 vs SL on 2020 Jan
2 T20 vs NZ on 2020 Feb
3 T20 vs AUS on 2020 Dec
3 T20 vs SL on 2021 July
2 T20 vs SL on 2022 Feb
1 T20 vs IRE on 2022 Jun— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) July 14, 2022
Indian wicketkeeper last 3 scores in t20is
*Rishabh Pant 1, 26, 1
*Dinesh Karthik 11,12,6
*Ishan Kishan 26,3,8
*Sanju Samson 39,18,77And guess what ,they dropped the only performing guy pic.twitter.com/ROQpCx7nEd
— Anurag (@RightGaps) July 14, 2022
Sanju Samson deserve chance, feel sad for this talented player. Sanju dropped from T20I series against West Indies
#SanjuSamson pic.twitter.com/YjP6V2qT4i— Ashutosh Srivastava (@kingashu1008) July 14, 2022
Rishabh Pant in his last 6 T20I innings : 56 Runs
Sanju Samson in his last 1 t20i inning : 77 runs
Pant has failed in middle order and also in top order but why is he getting chances ahead of Sanju Samson? pic.twitter.com/6ExAbpeAhP
— J|B (@ItzButter63) July 14, 2022
You may agree or not But Sanju Samson deserves a whole t20 series.
Hard luck
pic.twitter.com/QlvReTtTN9
— Rishabh pant fan club (@rishabpantclub) July 14, 2022
Feeling sad for Sanju Samson
RETWEET THIS TWEET IF YOU BELIEVE HE DESERVES OPPORTUNITY
— Cricket
yet another series where he could have been selected but it looks like he is definitely not in India’s plans for World T20 
Lover // Bumrah is GOAT (@CricCrazyV) Sanju Samson couldn’t find a place in India’s T20I squad once again.
His stats since 2019:
vs Pace: 31.13 Avg, 147.50 SR
vs Spin: 29.56 Avg, 143.77 SRHe is one of the best Indian T20 batters, still not a regular member of this squad. Really absurd!
— Prasenjit Dey (@CricPrasen) July 14, 2022
If you think Sanju Samson deserve in team
Than like #SanjuSamson pic.twitter.com/KWr2s58TEO— AV! 09 (@Avidhakad029) July 14, 2022
Rishabh Pant last 7 innings in T20i – 29, 5, 6, 17, 1*, 26, 1.
Runs – 85
Avg – 14.16
SR – 99.22Sanju Samson last 7 innings in T20i – 77, 18, 39, 0, 7, 27, 10.
Runs – 178
Avg – 25.42
SR – 131.54One is backed and other one struggling to make eleven of even B team. pic.twitter.com/NiFlHsJgF4
— Jesus Messiah (@SavariiGiriGiri) July 10, 2022
No Offence to anyone but Shreyas iyer getting selected ahead of Samson and Tripathi in t20’s absolutely serves no purpose, when u have already visualized Kohli to bat at 3 for the world cup!
— Gagan Chawla (@toecrushrzzz) July 14, 2022
Sanju Samson is the Dark Knight, eh? Silent entries and exits in squad lists these days.
— S. Sudarshanan (@Sudarshanan7) July 14, 2022
WHERE IS SANJU SAMSON? https://t.co/lFi0t58isK
— Sparsh Telang (@_cricketsparsh) July 14, 2022
Shreyas Iyer
They are not serious for the wc. Get in Samson mfs who can play pace in AUS. Wc is not in Bangladesh that u are sticking to Iyer. https://t.co/IKXf5YEjL2— Balerion (@Manav_161) July 14, 2022
Can’t believe Sanju Samson can’t find a place in any Indian team. Another fine talent gone….
— ⁷ (@kurkureter) July 14, 2022
Should’ve tried Rahul Tripathi & Sanju Samson for Kishan & Iyer. Rest is perfect. Kohli rested. Sundar & Krunal are playing in Royal London Cup. Shahbaz would be a good option for Axar. https://t.co/mbOxGGS1sQ
— 𝙋𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙮𝙪𝙨𝙝 𝙎 (@ps26_11) July 14, 2022
