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Sanju Samson failed to find a place in India’s 15-member ICC Champions Trophy 2025 squad, which was announced by chief selector Ajit Agarkar on Saturday.
Gautam Gambhir’s five-year-old goes viral. (Picture Credit: Sportzpics)
Wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson has a batting average of 56.66 in ODIs, and the 30-year-old also scored a century (108) in his last 50-over match for India, which was played against South Africa in Paarl on December 21, 2023. But despite that, he was not picked in India’s squad for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. The BCCI organised a press conference in Mumbai on Saturday in which chief selector Ajit Agarkar and captain Rohit Sharma announced India’s 15-member squad for the eight-team ICC tournament.
Rishabh Pant was included as the first-choice wicketkeeper-batter in the squad, and KL Rahul is likely to be his back-up. Samson’s snub came as a shock for many fans and experts of the game because the right-handed batter has impressed with his batting in the last couple of white-ball series for India.
In his last five matches for India, Samson has scored three centuries, two of which were against South Africa in South Africa.
After Samson was ignored by BCCI selectors for a place in India’s Champions Trophy squad, a more than four-year-old tweet of India’s head coach, Gautam Gambhir, is going viral on the internet. In the viral post, Gambhir expressed shock over Samson’s absence from the Indian team.
“It’s weird that the only playing eleven Sanju Samson doesn’t find a place is that of India, rest almost everyone is ready for him with open arms,” Gambhir tweeted on September 22, 2020, after Samson slammed 74 runs from just 32 balls for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL 2020 match against CSK in Sharjah.
It’s weird that the only playing eleven Sanju Samson doesn’t find a place is that of India, rest almost everyone is ready for him with open arms @rajasthanroyals @IPL @BCCI— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) September 22, 2020
Samson, who made his ODI debut on July 23, 2021, against Sri Lanka at R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, has 510 runs to his name in 16 matches played so far. He has one century and three fifties to his name in the 50-over format of the game.
The wicketkeeper-batter will, however, be seen in action for India in the five-match T20I series against England, which starts on January 22. The series opener is scheduled to take place at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, and the next four matches will be played in Chennai, Rajkot, Pune, and Mumbai.
