Monday, May 20

“This Is Truly Inexplicable”: Shashi Tharoor Slams Selectors For Sanju Samson’s Exclusion

Edited by Hiba Anvar
“This Is Truly Inexplicable” Shashi Tharoor Slams Selectors For Sanju Samson’s Exclusion (image- instagram/iamsanjusamson)

Thiruvananthapuram Congress MP Shashi Tharoor expressed his surprise at the omission of Indian cricketer Sanju Samson from the upcoming T20 series against Australia. He slammed the selectors for snubbing the Rajasthan Royals captain once again.

Shashi Tharoor expressed his disagreement with the selector’s decision on his official X handle, he wrote, “This is truly inexplicable. @IamSanjuSamson should have not just been selected, he should have led the side in the absence of all the seniors. His captaincy experience with Kerala and @rajasthanroyals is more current than SKY’s. Our selectors need to explain themselves to the cricket-loving public. And why no @yuzi_chahal either?”.

Shashi Tharoor questioned the selectors decision to ignore the wicket-keeper batter for India’s five match T20I series against Australia at home. The former Indian diplomat also added that Sanju Samson has the capacity to lead the team in the absence of other senior players as he holds the captaincy experience by leading Kerala and Rajasthan Royals in domestic cricket.

Shashi Tharoor also quizzed the exclusion of Yuzvendra Chahal despite exhibiting a remarkable show throughout the year. The 33-year-old leg-spinner scalped nine wickets and was regarded as the leading wicket-taker in T20Is. Unfortunately, Sanju and Yadav was both ruled out in T20Is and 2023 World Cup squad.

Meanwhile, Suryakumar Yadav is picked out as the captain despite his below-par numbers in ODIs. The right-hand batter failed to outperform in the final match against Australia too, scoring 18 runs off 28 balls. However, Yadav has amassed 433 runs in 10 T20I innings at an average of 54.33.

Sanju Samson last played for Indian in the T20I series against Australia and he was also part of the team that toured West Indies earlier this year. In both the tours, Sanju was unable to perform well.

Four days after heartbreaking loss to Australia in the World Cup finals, India will take on the same opposition in a T20I series which is scheduled to begin on November 23 at Vishakhapatnam.

Indian squad for T20Is Series:

Suryakumar Yadav (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vice-captain), Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dubey, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.