Sadagoppan Ramesh believes that Sanju Samson has been left out of India’s T20 squad with a hidden motive, which is to eventually bring Shubman Gill back into the side. The wicketkeeper-batter was dropped from the squad for the upcoming three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe.
Ramesh, a former India opener, said that Prabhsimran Singh has replaced Samson for the clash against the Chevrons only because the decision-makers didn’t want to make their inclination towards Shubman Gill blatantly obvious.
“Samson not even being in the squad is very wrong. While many might see this as a well-deserved opportunity for Prabhsimran Singh, I look at it different. Because they didn’t want it to look blatantly obvious, they are taking this route to ultimately select Shubman Gill,” Ramesh said in a video uploaded to his YouTube channel.
Shubman was appointed India’s vice-captain in the T20 format last year, a move that was criticised by some fans who believed that the current selection committee was backing the Punjab batter way too much. There was a notion that Shubman was eventually going to take over the leadership reins from Suryakumar Yadav in T20Is and become India’s all-format skipper. However, the right-handed batter was dropped from the T20 setup after a string of failures, including a dismal Asia Cup campaign last year.
However, it is tough to keep Shubman out of the side because of the volume of runs he has been scoring in the Indian Premier League (IPL) over the years. Even this year, the 26-year-old had a memorable campaign, amassing 732 runs in 16 innings at a strike rate of 163.03 and finishing as the second-highest run-getter behind Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
It is interesting to note that Shubman was India’s captain when the Men in Blue toured Zimbabwe the last time to play a five-match T20I series after the 2024 T20 World Cup. This time, Shreyas Iyer will be in charge of the side. However, India need to focus on the present, which is the five-match T20I series against England, which they are trailing 0-1 with three games left to play.
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