The former India cricketer pointed out that Samson wasn’t able to make it to India’s squad for Champions Trophy because Pant was up agains
Legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar explained the reason why wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson was left out of India’s squad for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy.
Despite there being many discussions about keeping him in the squad for the ICC tournament, Samson was left out of the 15-member squad on Saturday. Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul were picked as the designated wicketkeepers, with the decision to snub Samson receiving a lot of backlash.
Gavaskar believes that this will be a tough pill to swallow for Samson, who was dropped despite scoring 2 hundreds in the 4-match T20I series against South Africa in November last year. He also pointed out that Pant is a better wicketkeeper than Samson while the latter is the better batter.
“Very tough because the man has been scoring hundreds and hundreds of runs. There is no excuse to leave him out. But he was pitted against Rishabh Pant, who we all know can be a game-changer. Plus Pant is a left-hander and he is probably the better wicketkeeper, although he might not be the better batter than Samson,” Gavaskar told India Today.
“Pant can change the game perhaps a little more than Samson and that’s reason why Samson missed out. But Samson must not feel dejected because all Indian cricket lovers will have sympathy for him for what he has achieved,” Gavaskar added.
Since making his ODI debut, Samson has not been able to become a regular in the side and has constantly been in and out of the side. He has played just 16 ODIs in nearly a decade, scoring 510 runs at an average of 56.66 and a strike-rate of 99.60 with a hundred and three fifties.
India's squad for Champions Trophy: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal. , Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja
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