‘He should have led the side’- Shashi Tharoor slams Indian selectors after Sanju Samson’s snub from Australia T201 series

Just 4 days after a hectic ODI World Cup, India is set to face Australia in a five-match T20I series starting on the 23rd of November in Visakhapatnam. After a heartbreaking loss in the finals of the ODI World Cup 2023, the Indian team is ready for the next challenge against the mighty Australia but this time in a shorter T20 version of the game.

With just a few months left for the upcoming T20 World Cup that is going to take place in America and the West Indies, the T20 series against Australia will start a new cycle for team India. As the majority of the big boys from the ODI World Cup squad have been rested after a long World Cup, the Indian squad for the recent series has some major names missing and is brimming with young talent looking for a big stage to showcase their abilities and what better stage they could get than a series against Australia.

However, the recently announced squad for the series saw some surprising omissions that caused a stir in the cricketing circles. One of them, which drew extra attentio were the omission of wicketkeeper batter Sanju Samson and leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal who were expected to be a part of the T20 series against Australia.

Sanju Samson & Yuzvendra Chahal's exclusion in T20 World Cup

Both these players have been performing consistently in the IPL and were seen as potential contenders to lead the side in absence of the current captain of T20Is, Hardik Pandya who was suffering an ankle injury during the World Cup. The news of the omission of Sanju Samson and Chahal forced the veteran politician and cricket aficionado Shashi Tharoor to take to “X” formerly Twitter to come in support of these two cricketers. Tharoor said that given the experience of Sanju Samson captaining Kerala and Rajasthan Royals in the IPL, the young batter should have been made the captain let alone being picked in the squad.

Tharoor tweeted, “This is truly inexplicable. @IamSanjuSamson should have not just been selected, he should have led the side in the absence of all the seniors. His captaincy experience with Kerala and @rajasthanroyals is more current than SKY's. Our selectors need to explain themselves to the cricket-loving public. And why no @yuzi_chahal either?,"