While Sanju Samson didn’t find a place in India’s XI in the first ODI against West Indies on Thursday in Barbados, his jersey did make an appearance on the field at the Kensington Oval.
After Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to field first, India star Suryakumar Yadav took the field wearing Samson’s jersey. When SKY came out to bat, at number 3, too, he was wearing Samson’s jersey.
This created for some witty chatter on social media as fans took a dig at the BCCI – the richest cricket board in the world – and the team management for excluding Sanju Samson from the playing XI.
Why did Suryakumar Yadav wore Sanju Samson’s jersey?
It has been learned that there was an issue with the t-shirt size of SKY and a delay in the arrival of his new jersey forced SKY to take the field wearing Samson’s jersey.
Suryakumar had informed the team management about not getting a t-shirt of his size just a day before the match and requested for a new kit. Thus, with the new kit not arriving until the matchday, he had to take Samson’s jersey that fit him to the tee.
As per the ICC rules, cricketers now cannot tape the names on the behind of the jersey. He is expected to get his new jersey after the second ODI.
“There was some size issue with his jersey. We were told about it two days before the game. He will be receiving his new jersey after the second ODI as the BCCI has shipped it with Indian team players selected for the T20 series. Till then he will be wearing his team mate jersey while playing,” a BCCI source said, as quoted by The Indian Express.
Suryakumar Yadav failed to grab his chance again in ODIs
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli both demoted themselves to give others a chance in the chase of only 115. Suryakumar Yadav was sent at number 3. He started off brilliantly, getting a couple of cover drive boundaries and a swept four, plus his trademark pull shot over fine leg for a six. However, he got out, scoring only 19 runs to Motie’s spin.
