The exclusion of Sanju Samson from the T20I squad for the West Indies series was the biggest talking point from the selection meeting, headed by MSK Prasad on the eve of the historic pink-ball Test. The update also remained one of the top trends on social media and Samson reacted with a simple emoji, not saying much about his exclusion.
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As per a report in Mumbai Mirror, selectors wanted to keep him in the squad but were helpless due to two reasons – Rishabh Pant and Virat Kohli.
Rishabh has been looked as MS Dhoni’s successor across formats. He has lost his place in the Test squad but will still be given a long rope to settle down in white-ball cricket. He has played every white-ball game since World Cup 2019 and looks set to play another complete series to keep his spot. Since he was retained, there was no way that Sanju would have got a chance.
Also, with Kohli returning to the T20I squad, one of the batsmen had to be left out and it was Samson who was dropped. He comes next to Manish Pandey, who played one T20I during Bangladesh series, in the pecking order and Pandey retained his spot.
There could be a case when he might return if Rishabh does not perform well but for that, Samson will have to continue his form.
Despite playing every international series since the start of the year, there was no rest for Rohit Sharma. As per the report, team India’s white-ball vice-captain himself wanted to be part of the series and conveyed the message through captain Kohli.
After returning to Australia for the ODI series in January, Rohit has been part of every series. He has missed just three matches – two Tests against West Indies (kept out of playing XI) and one T20I (rested) – that India have played in 2019.
India play West Indies in three T20Is and three ODIs from December 6 to 22.