IND vs AUS: Shashi Tharoor Slams Selectors For Dropping Best Available Captain Sanju Samson From T20 Series Squad

Member of Parliament and cricket fan Sashi Tharoor has questioned the selectors for omitting wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson and leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal from the Indian squad for the five-match series against Australia.

The Men's Selection Committee on Monday (November 20) announced the squad for the upcoming T20I series against Australia, scheduled to start from Thursday (November 23) in Visakhapatnam.

Suryakumar Yadav was named the skipper with Ruturaj Gaikwad serving as his deputy for the first three matches, while Shreyas Iyer will join the group as the vice-captain for the final two T20Is. IPL stars Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh and Jitesh Sharma have also been selected.

While many seniors, who played in the recently conclueded ODI World Cup, were given a rest as expected, a few notable exclusions were Samson, Chahal and senior pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

As usual many fans expressed their views on the exclusion of Samson, who also got the backing of MP Tharoor, who feels the Rajasthan Royals and Kerala skipper would have been a better captaincy option than Suryakumar.

"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?" he wrote on X.

The Congress MP wrote what he felt on social media, but Samson has faced the axe several times this year, from being a reserve in the Asia Cup and not making it to the World Cup nor the Asian Games squads.

Samson, however, has failed to cement his place whenever he got the chance in the T20Is. While he has done better in ODI format, the Kerala star has scored just 374 runs, including 1 fifty in 21 innings at an average of 19.68, but at a decent strike rate of 133.57.

Meanwhile, Chahal, who has also been on the wrong end of some selection calls, took to social media soon after the squad was announced to share a cryptic post with just a single smiley emoticon.

Bhuvneshwar, on the other hand, was not considered for T20Is and is no longer in contention for Team India. Another player that missed out on a spot was, Riyan Parag, who has had a terrific Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20.

India's squad vs Australia: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vice-captain), Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wicketkeeper), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dubey, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.