India’s wicketkeeper batter Sanju Samson was spotted playing football on a basketball court. He is currently enjoying his time off from cricket after the conclusion of India’s tour of Sri Lanka. The basketball court was a bit wet, which meant it had rained before. There can be nothing more delightful than enjoying a football game with friends on rainy days and Samson did just that. He was part of India’s T20I squad for the three-match series against Sri Lanka in Pallekele.
However, Samson could not make much impact in the T20I series as he registered two consecutive ducks in the games he played. The 29-year-old was not considered for the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka. He was part of India’s T20 World Cup 2024 winning squad but was not given any games with Rishabh Pant being the top wicketkeeper-batter choice. After BCCI announced the squads for the Sri Lanka tour, fans and many experts criticised Samson’s snub from the ODI squad, knowing he had scored a century in the last ODI which India played in December 2023 against South Africa. However, he was subjected to immense criticism after a poor show in the shortest format of the game.
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What future holds for Samson?
Samson recently reacted to his exclusion from the ODI squad and said that team doing well is more important to him.
“I will just go and play whenever they select me. That’s it! At the end of the day, our team is doing well. I am the kind of person who believes in higher purpose. I just try to take things positively under controllable circumstances and put up the efforts,” Samson said at the launch of Kerala Cricket League.
Sanju Samson has also not been named in the Duleep Trophy squad which was announced by the BCCI earlier this week. The Duleep Trophy tournament will see participation from key India players like Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and many more.
In fact, Ishan Kishan, who has been out of Indian team’s scheme of things will be participating in the tournament. He also made a stellar start in the domestic tournament with an 86-ball century in the ongoing Buchi Babu tournament. With so many wicketkeeper-batters in contention, it will be interesting to see if Samson will be able to make a comeback.
