Sanju Samson has had to make a tough decision. Two weeks ago, the Kerala skipper was named in the IND vs SA ODI squad. This meant that Samson had to leave his domestic side, Kerala to join the India Cricket Team mid-Vijay Hazare Trophy. In this process, Samson and Kerela have been knocked out of the VHT quarter-final.
The star batter had to make a tough decision: to take Kerala past the quarterfinal (December 11) or prepare for the ODI series in South Africa. However, after missing out on the Asia Cup and the World Cup, Samson would have been raring to join the squad as he found himself back in the Indian jersey after 4 months.
His omission from Kerala’s playing XI in QF, unfortunately led to their departure from the first knockout stage. Sans Samson, Kerala crumbled like a house of cards, losing the quarterfinal by a whopping 200 runs.
Notably, Kerala skipper Sanju Samson led his team from the front in the pre-QF of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Sanju Samson’s limited ODI opportunities in 2023
The right-handed batter has played just two ODIs for the India Cricket Team in 2023 so far. However, this IND vs SA ODI call-up is of high importance, with Samson wanting to make it into India’s T20 lineup. The aggressive middle-order batter was not included in the T20 squad and now has three opportunities to prove himself to the management and selectors.
Unfortunately for Sanju, his form hasn’t been the best in the domestic 50-over competition. Kerala ended their Vijay Hazare Trophy 2023 campaign with Samson as the top scorer (293 runs). However, he found himself outside the list of top 20 run scorers and averaged less than 50 despite scoring a century and a fifty in 8 innings.
Samson will be looking to change his fortunes when he dons the India Cricket Team jersey on December 17. The batter will be looking to make his spot in ODIs permanent, all the while aiming for the T20 World Cup 2024.
India’s squad for IND vs SA ODIs: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan, Tilak Varma, Rajat Patidar, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (c & wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar.
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