Why Sanju Samson Is Not Playing IND vs AFG 1st T20I?

image-lr998mi0Rinku Singh and Sanju Samson during a training session (x.com)

Indian captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to field first against Afghanistan in the first T20I of their three-match series. The cricketer also confirmed that in-form wicketkeeper Sanju Samson will not be taking part in the series opener, even though middle-order stalwart Virat Kohli opted himself out of the game to celebrate the birthday of his daughter Vamika.

Samson’s exclusion came up as a surprise to a number of Indian fans, considering the belligerent wicketkeeping-batter recently powered the ‘Men in Blue’ to a rare ODI series win in South Africa.

Why Sanju Samson is not playing IND vs AFG 1st T20I?

Rohit Sharma, at the toss, confirmed that Sanju Samson will not be playing the first T20I against Afghanistan. The Indian team management went ahead with alternate wicketkeeper option Jitesh Sharma instead, who made his format debut a few months ago against Nepal in Hangzhou.

While captain Rohit did not elaborate on his decision of keeping out Samson, one can assume that the team management wants to give Jitesh Sharma a slightly longer rope in lieu of this year’s 2024 T20 World Cup. Moreover, Jitesh also holds much familiarity with the playing conditions of Mohali’s INS Bindra Stadium, owing to his IPL commitment for home team Punjab Kings.

Apart from Sanju Samson, young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and speedster Avesh Khan also failed to make a cut into India’s playing XI for the Afghanistan game. Here is a look at India’s entire XI for the first T20I against Afghanistan:

India XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh and Mukesh Kumar.

The series serve as India’s final set of T20I fixtures prior to this year’s T20 World Cup 2024. It is also India’s first full-length white-ball series against Afghanistan.