Samson has not played an ODI for India since December 2023 despite scoring a hundred in his last match.
KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Dhruv Jurel. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has selected three wicketkeepers for India’s upcoming ODI series against South Africa. They are all quality players. But how often does an Indian team choose three goalkeepers? And even when they did, somehow Sanju Samson still didn’t make the team.
In Pant’s absence, Samson was expected to be India’s backup keeper in the ODIs. But during the team selection for Australia, Dhruv Jurel got the nod. When an extra place became available due to injuries to Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer, Pant came in and Jurel continued, but Samson could not.
Sanju Samson, victim of format mixing?
Anil Kumble is not really happy that Samson is getting the cold shoulder. The former Indian captain highlighted how the Kerala batter scored a hundred in his last ODI, although it was almost two years ago.
“One name I would have liked to see was Sanju Samson as well, because I think in the last ODI he played a few years ago, I know he wasn’t in the Australian ODI team, but Sanju got a hundred,” Kumble said on JioStar.
That wasn’t the most interesting part. Kumble mentioned something that has upset a lot of people when it comes to selection: format mixing. He believes that Jurel joined the ODI team because of the India Test and India A exploits. While it is understandable to reward him for them, it is not Samson who should pay them.
For the moment, Samson is leading in the hierarchy of white balls. But since Jurel is part of the test setup, he was included, unlike the first one. Also, unlike T20Is, Samson usually bats in the top or middle order in ODIs.
“So I think when you play in these three or two different formats you tend to mix up form and everything else. So that’s something I think you have to keep in mind when you’re picking teams,” he added.
Indian ODI squad for South Africa series
Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul (c and week), Rishabh Pant (week), Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Dhruv Jurel (week), Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana.
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