India and South Africa will clash in the first of the three T20Is in Trivandrum and as the Men in Blue bus arrived at the team hotel, fans swarmed in to catch a glimpse of their heroes, though one of their own, Sanju Samson is not part of the squad.
Sanju Samson’s exclusion from the Indian squad for the recent T20I series against Australia and South Africa had enraged a section of the crowd on social media and some of them even planned to protest against BCCI during the first match in Trivandrum.
People gathered in number to welcome the Men in Blue with loud cheers. They gathered around the team bus to have a glimpse of their superstars.
During this commotion, India batter Suryakumar Yadav, who was seated on a window seat, flashed a photo of Sanju Samson on his phone to the fans, a moment that was shared on Twitter by Rajasthan Royals, for whom Sanju Samson plays in the Indian Premier League.
Here is the video:
It wasn’t just Suryakumar Yadav but the likes of Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal also tagged Sanju, their IPL captain, on their Instagram stories while sharing the picture of the Trivandrum crowd.
The South African players also landed in the city on Monday morning and began training for the first game on Wednesday at the Greenfield Stadium. The hosts will begin sweating it out in the nets on Tuesday.
“Team India will reach the ground for the practice on September 27. They will practice from 5 PM to 8 PM. The South African team will practice on the ground from 1.00 PM to 4.00 PM,” KCA said in a release.
(PTI inputs)