Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Shashi Tharoor was surprised by the exclusion of Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma from India's ODI and T20I squad, respectively, for the upcoming white-ball series against Sri Lanka, starting on July 27.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday announced white-ball squads for the ODI and T20I series against hosts Sri Lanka. This will be the first assignment for Gautam Gambhir as head coach of Team India after he was appointed for the role earlier this month.
The squad announcement has some surprises, including Harshit Rana's maiden national call-up, the inclusion of Riyan Parag and Shivam Dube in the ODI roaster, the appointment of Shubman Gill as vice-captain of India's white-ball squads and many others. However, the exclusion of Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma from the ODI and T20I squad, respectively left many questioned.
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Taking to X handle (formerly Twitter), Shashi Tharoor questioned the selectors for not picking Samson and Abhishek in the white-ball squad despite their recent successes in respective format.
"Interesting squad selection for India’s tour of Sri Lanka later this month. @IamSanjuSamson, who hit a century in his last ODI, has not been picked for ODIs, while @IamAbhiSharma4, who hit a T20I century in the #INDvZIM series, has not been picked at all." Cong MP wrote.
"Rarely has success in India colours mattered so little to the selectors! Good luck to the team anyway." he added.
Sanju Samson has been picked in the T20I squad but not included in the ODI roaster despite scoring a century in India's most recent outing in the format. The Men in Blue's last ODI match was against South Africa in December 2023 and Samson played a brilliant innings 108 off 114 balls.
Abhishek Sharma, on the other hand, registered his maiden international century in the 2nd T20I of the five-match series against Zimbabwe in Harare. Sharma played a brilliant knock of 100 off 47 balls.
