Samson slammed a hundred in his last ODI appearance against South Africa in December 2023.
Legendary spinner Anil Kumble was left disappointed by the BCCI selection committee’s decision to ignore Sanju Samson in India’s ODI squad for the three-match series against South Africa, starting November 30 in Ranchi.
Speaking on Day 3 of the second Test in Guwahati, Kumble suggested the selectors may have mixed up formats when evaluating the wicketkeeper batter.
The Ajit Agarkar-led panel decided to bring back Rishabh Pant to the ODI squad as a second wicketkeeper-batter. Pant’s last ODI appearance was against Sri Lanka in August 2024.
“One name that I would have wanted to see was Sanju Samson as well, because I think the last ODI that he played a couple of years ago, I know he was not a part of the Australia ODI squad, but Sanju got a hundred,” Kumble said on JioStar.
Samson’s ODI numbers are remarkable. In 16 matches, he has scored 510 runs in 14 innings at an average of 56.67, with three fifties and one century. The right-hander scored a composed 108 off 114 balls in his last ODI appearance against South Africa in December 2023 at Paarl.
His recent form in T20Is may have been a factor in his ODI snub. After the retirement of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from T20Is, Sanju Samson enjoyed a brilliant run at the top alongside Abhishek Sharma.
However, with Shubman Gill’s return to the T20I fold as vice-captain, Samson was moved to the middle order, where his returns have dipped.
Kumble reckons the selectors may have misjudged the wicketkeeper batter’s recent T20I form when picking the ODI squad.
“So I think when you play these three different formats or two formats, you tend to mix up the form and everything else. So that is something that I think one needs to keep in mind when you are picking squads,” Kumble remarked.
India’s ODI squad for South Africa series: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul (C) (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel