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 No Sanju Samson, Yuzvendra Chahal In India's T20I Squad; Here Are Reasons For Their Omission

image-lp8c1jjdSanju Samson in Indian colours (X.com)

The World Cup 2023 is done and dusted and the wounds of the World Cup loss are still fresh in the hearts of millions of Indian fans. However, the world is a brutal place and just after three days, team India find itself going against the same opponents in a five-match T20I series. 

The Indian squad is out and it turned out to be another heartbreak for Sanju Samson and Yuzvendra Chahal fans, as both of them have been omitted. Since then, there has been a lot of debate regarding the non-selection of the two as India have selected a young team and inexperienced players with Suryakumar Yadav leading the pack.

So, let's try to find out the reasons behind the omission of the famed duo of Sanju Samson and Yuzvendra Chahal. 

Reasons for Sanju Samson's omission

Sanju Samson's below-par performance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali 2023 and in recent T20I games

Sanju Samson is without doubt a match-winner whenever he gets going, but inconsistency has haunted him for a long time now. He has rectified it in the ODI format, but in T20Is, he has not lived up to his billing. His average in T20Is is just 19.68 in 24 games and other than a quickfire 40 in his last T20I, he has failed to notch up decent scores in recent times.


He also could not grab the eyeballs in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He scored only 138 runs in 6 innings while the likes of Riyan Parag and Abhishek Sharma blasted 510 and 485 runs respectively. They still did not find a place in the team though, but all others who were selected, scored more runs than Sanju Samson in that tournament. So, if we go only by sheer volume of runs scored by Sanju Samson, in recent times, his omission was quite expected.


Plenty of top-order batters leaving no room for Sanju Samson

Indian selectors have gone with plenty of top-order batters in the 15-member squad announced for initial three T20Is. In the final two T20Is, Shreyas Iyer will join the squad who is again a top-order batter, and this would have contributed to Sanju Samson's omission as well.

The squad has three openers and one of them, Ruturaj Gaikwad is the vice-captain of the side, making him a sure starter. Ishan Kishan has also been a regular feature in the side, so he will most probably start which means Yashasvi Jaiswal might have to bat at 3. If he is not included, there are still players like Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav while the likes of Jitesh Sharma, Rinku Singh and Shivam Dube have been selected for their specialist middle order roles as Sanju could not make much of an impact as number 5 and number 6 batter in the West Indies series.


Reason for Yuzvendra Chahal's Omission

Team management looking for long-term replacement

Yuzvendra Chahal has been a champion performer for India and is still a gun-T20 bowler. He bowled decently in the T20I series against the Windies as well before the Asia Cup, but Ravi Bishnoi was preferred in the Ireland series and it seems that the team management want to groom him ahead of the T20 World Cup next year.

Ravi Bishnoi has also done well in the limited opportunities he has got, and has picked 25 wickets in just 16 matches. He also has the ability to deliver under pressure, and maybe selectors are just experimenting after a tiring 50-over World Cup.

So, these might be some of the reasons for the absence of Sanju Samson and Yuzvendra Chahal from the upcoming T20I series against the Aussies. Both of them are proven match-winners, and their fans would be hoping that they get into the scheme of things soon, before it all gets too late for another T20 World Cup, scheduled to be played in the Caribbean and USA in 2024.