Picture Credit: X
On Thursday, July 18, Shashi Tharoor, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, questioned the Indian selectors for not picking Sanju Samson in ODI and Abhishek Sharma in T20I squads for the tour to Sri Lanka. The 68-year-old spoke about how the success in Indian colours mattered very little to the selectors in regard to the team selection, while mentioning the recent performances of Samson and Sharma.
Notably, in the last ODI for India, which was played on December 21, 2023, Sanju Samson scored a hundred against South Africa at the Boland Park in Paarl. His runs proved to be enough for the Indian cricket team to win only their second ODI series against South Africa at their home with a margin of 2-1.
In the debut T20I series for India earlier this month, Abhishek Sharma scored a hundred in his second international match against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club in Harare. After getting dismissed without troubling the scorers on his debut, he smashed 100 off just 47, to ensure that India registered a commanding 100-run win over Zimbabwe.
Shashi Tharoor took to his official X account to address the Indian selection committee’s decision to exclude Samson and Sharma from ODIs and T20Is respectively. He wrote, “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 #INDvsSL”.
The Indian cricket team is scheduled to play three-match ODI and T20I series against Sri Lanka from July 27 to August 7.
