BCCI faces fans' wrath as Sanju Samson finds no place in NZ T20I squad, Pant cited

The BCCI had announced the Indian squad for the upcoming five-match series against New Zealand which gets underway from January 24 following the home series against Australia.  

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Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Manish Pandey, Shivam Dube, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, and Mohammed Shami have made the squad.

However, young Sanju Samson did not find a place in the T20I squad. Sanju had made his return to represent India in the shortest format for the first time since 2015. Unfortunately, things did not work out in his favour as he was trapped in front of the wicket off the very second delivery after he had got off the mark with a six. 

Even though Samson had failed in what was his first outing at the highest level after a long time, the fans were very annoyed at the BCCI and the selectors for not giving the Kerala batsman another chance. Here are some of the reactions.

Test and ODI squads not announced 

Interestingly, the Test and the ODI squads were not announced and it is believed that Hardik Pandya's latest fitness issues could be the reason. A BCCI release mentioned that Hardik Pandya's rehabilitation process is taking "longer than expected".Vijay Shankar had replaced Pandya in the India A squad for New Zealand shadow tour. "Hardik Pandya was boarding the flight to New Zealand for A team without playing a Ranji match. If we go by media reports, his trainer has said that there are workload issues with regards to his bowling. That itself implies that he is not fit. I think the BCCI will instruct Hardik to first play Ranji Trophy for Baroda and prove his fitness," another senior board source said.

India tour of New Zealand

The Virat Kohli-led side will be touring New Zealand where they are scheduled to play five T20Is, three ODIs and two Test matches between January 24 to March 4, 2020. The two-match Test series will also be a part of the ICC World Test Championship 2019-21 where India is currently on top of the points table. However, it will be interesting to see whether Kohli & Co. can emulate their Test greatness overseas. 

(Image Courtesy: AP)

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