Sanju Samson's snub highlighted India's 15-member squad announced for the Zimbabwe T20I series.
When the BCCI Men's Selection Committee announced squad for the upcoming three-T20I series against Zimbabwe on Monday (July 6), there was a notable omission in it.
India’s T20 World Cup 2026 hero Sanju Samson failed to make the cut in the 15-member squad, featuring quite a few fresh faces including wicketkeeper-batter Prabhsimran Singh.
Samson’s snub became a talking point because it came only two days after he was axed from the starting XI in the second T20I against England at Old Trafford. Young prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi replaced him in the playing XI as opening partner to Abhishek Sharma.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, former cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra minced no words and called the decision to drop Samson 'wrong' after just three failures in the ongoing UK tour.
Chopra also raised a crucial warning regarding Sanju’s replacement, the 15-year-old Sooryavanshi, questioning what’s the guarantee that the teenager will keep on performing consistently.
"Honestly, it's wrong. When we played the first T20I, I also believed you wouldn't be able to make Vaibhav sit out since you had lost the series to Ireland, but you would have to make a rotation policy to give him a chance. You don't make the other guy disappear to make a place for someone," Chopra said.
"He (Samson) is the guy who won you the World Cup. It's not somebody who is a non-performer. Three innings went bad, and you forgot everything. That worries me a little. It saddens my heart a little because what's the guarantee that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi would keep doing well?" he added.
Chopra criticized the management's short-term panic fixes, emphasizing that dropping a 31-year-old proven match-winner after a few poor innings lacks vision.
"If he (Sooryavanshi) doesn't do well, you have gone towards Prabhsimran Singh, but is that a long-term plan because Sanju is not 35 or 38 years old? Sanju is still a young man. Who gets old at 30 or 31 years? His career has been slightly inconsistent for sure, and you need to take tough decisions at times, but you dropped Sanju from the team itself," he remarked.
Aakash Chopra pointed out the irony that the selectors picked the full-strength batting line-up for the Zimbabwe series, yet somehow found no place for Samson.
He wondered how the team management could justify dropping the T20 World Cup's POTM after just three failures, stating it sends a terrible message about a player's value.
"We are going with full-strength batting. It's not like we are resting any of the batters. The batting list is exactly what it should be. This is the batting that came after winning the World Cup, barring Vaibhav, of course. If you are taking your full batting, is there actually no place for Sanju Samson in that?" Chopra said.
"I am shocked. How would you communicate this decision that it took us three matches to figure out that you are not good enough? I felt there was no need to move away from Sanju. You could have had a rotation policy. If you had asked me, I would have said rest Abhishek," he concluded.