With Sanju Samson shown the exit door by the selectors ahead of the World Cup 2023, legendary cricketer Harbhajan Singh has explained why the power-hitter was overlooked for the showpiece event.
Samson squandered the opportunity to seal his place in the World Cup probables after a forgetful tour to the Caribean earlier this year. Despite having a stop-start career in white-ball cricket, Samson was backed by selectors for the West Indies series in which key campaigners Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were rested for a handful of limited-overs matches.
Pitted against Ishan Kishan for the wicketkeeper’s role, Samson struggled to make a significant impact against the West Indies. Since his international debut in 2015, Samson has made sporadic appearances for India in white-ball cricket. The power-hitter was picked as a standby batter for KL Rahul, who was recovering from a niggle during the Asia Cup. After Rahul was declared fit to play, Samson was sent back home and was not even considered for the World Cup squad.
‘Samson’s exclusion has raised a lot of debate’
Talking about Samson’s non-selection on his YouTube channel, former spinner Harbhajan admitted that the India batter’s exclusion sparked a huge debate in Indian cricket.”Sanju Samson’s exclusion has raised a lot of debates. If you average 55 in ODIs and still don’t be a part of the squad then definitely that’s strange. But I think Sanju wasn’t selected because India already had two wicketkeepers, KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan. Both are also a part of the World Cup squad,” Harbhajan said.
Samson scored 60 runs in the three-match ODI series against the West Indies. The Rajasthan Royals (RR) skipper only accumulated 32 runs in the five-match T20I series between the former world champions. Samson achieved an unimpressive average of 10.67 in 3 innings against the Men from the Caribbean. “Sanju will need to wait for his chance. I know it is difficult to accept sometimes and one can get disheartened. But age is on his side and I urge him to continue putting in the hard yards and wait for his time,” Harbhajan added.
‘If I have to choose between Rahul and Samson…’
While Samson was snubbed by selectors, India have picked a fit-again Rahul and Kishan as its two wicketkeepers for the ICC World Cup. Harbhajan also asserted that he would have picked Rahul over Samson because of what the ex-India vice-captain brings to the table as a No.4 batter. Versatile Rahul will lead Team India in the first two ODIs of the three-match series against Australia. The 31-year-old smashed a blistering century in his comeback match against Pakistan at the Asia Cup.
“If I have to choose between KL Rahul and Sanju Samson, I would definitely select Rahul because of the stability he provides at No.4, No.5. Samson is also a good player and can hit sixes at will, but the situation now is such that you can’t have three wicketkeeper-batters in a team. It will be difficult to field all of them in the XI,” he concluded.
