Sanju Samson has received support on social media after he posted a positive message following the news of his omission from India’s ODI squad for their upcoming series against Australia.
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On September 18, India named two squads for the three-match series against Australia, which gets underway this week. Neither squad included Samson. While Samson has already missed out on India’s provisional World Cup squad, he did play for India in their two most recent bilateral series, against the West Indies and Ireland.
Samson also did not feature in India’s Asia Cup campaign, but was named as their reserve batter for the tournament. With several key players rested for at least the first two matches of the series against Australia, there could have been room for him to make a return to the squad. Instead, youngsters Ruturaj Gaikwad and Washington Sundar were selected among batting options.
India squad for the first two ODIs vs Australia: KL Rahul (c), Ravindra Jadeja (vc), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan, Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar, R Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.
India squad for the third ODI vs Australia: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya, (vc), KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, R Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Axar Patel (subject to recovery from injury).
In response to his omission, Samson shared a positive message on Instagram. He captioned a photo of him batting in India colours with: “It is what it is!! I choose to keep moving forward.”
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His supporters responded with messages of support, wishing Samson the best going forward in international cricket.
Samson scored a half-century in his most recent ODI innings, in the Caribbean, his third fifty in 12 innings so far in the format. He currently averages 55.71 in ODIs with a strike rate of over 100.
As regular keeper Rishabh Pant is still out of contention for selection as he continues to recover from the injuries he sustained in a car crash, India have stuck to KL Rahul, with Ishan Kishan as backup.
