’Why no Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma?’ Shashi Tharoor questions India’s squad for Sri Lanka, takes a jibe at BCCI

After days of rumours and speculation, the BCCI finally announced India's squad for the T20 and ODI series in Sri Lanka, which will start later this month. The series has attracted a lot of attention as it will be the first time that Gautam Gambhir will be in the coach's chair, taking over from his former teammate, Rahul Dravid.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, however, has questioned the BCCI's squad selection over the omission of Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma from the ODI and T20I squads, respectively. Notably, Abhishek Sharma scored his maiden domestic century in the recent T20I series against Zimbabwe, while Sanju Samson scored a ton in the last ODI series against South Africa.

Taking a dig at the Indian selectors and the cricket board, Tharoor wrote on X, “Interesting squad selection for India’s tour of Sri Lanka later this month. @IamSanjuSamson, who hit a century in his last ODI, has not been picked for ODIs, while @IamAbhiSharma4, who hit a T20I century in the #INDvZIM series, has not been picked at all. Rarely has success in India colours mattered so little to the selectors! Good luck to the team anyway.”

India's squad for Sri Lanka series

In another shocking announcement, coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar have shown their faith in Suryakumar Yadav to lead the Men in Blue in the T20 format after the retirement of skipper Rohit Sharma from Twenty20 International cricket. The news surprised fans because though Hardik Pandya had captained the Indian team in the T20 format for the last one-and-a-half years in the absence of senior players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, the all-rounder has been sidelined from captaincy duties during this transition phase.

India squad for ODI

Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana

India squad for T20I 

Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohd. Siraj