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Legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar has opened up on wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson, following his exclusing from Team India's squad for the upcoming Champions Trophy. Despite much talks over his inclusion in the 15-man squad, Samson, to his disappointment, was left out of the team on Saturday. KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant were picked as the designated wicketkeepers, with the decision to snub Samson receiving a lot of backlash. Weighing in on the debate, Gavaskar suggested that the omission might have been a tough pill to swallow for Samson.
"Very tough because the man has been scoring hundreds and hundreds of runs. There is no excuse to leave him out. But he was pitted against Rishabh Pant, who we all know can be a game-changer. Plus Pant is a left-hander and he is probably the better wicketkeeper, although he might not be the better batter than Samson," Gavaskar said in an interview with India Today.
However, Gavaskar explained the logic behind the selectors picking Pant over Samson, labelling the former as a "better keeper".
"Pant can change the game perhaps a little more than Samson and that's reason why Samson missed out. But Samson must not feel dejected because all Indian cricket lovers will have sympathy for him for what he has achieved," Gavaskar added.
Since making his ODI debut, Samson has been in and out of team, with the selectors often ignoring him despite his stellar record in the 50-over format.
He has played just 16 ODIs in nearly a decade, scoring 510 runs at an average of 56.66 and a strike-rate of 99.60 with a hundred and three fifties to show for his efforts.
India's squad for Champions Trophy 2024:
Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja