5 Cricketers who were unlucky not to play for India in 2019

2019 was a busy year for the Indian cricket team. They played as many as 52 games across the three formats – eight Test matches, 28 ODIs and 16 T20Is. The Men in Blue won 35 games, lost 15 and drew one as well. In fact, they had the second-best win-loss ratio (2.33) behind Australia’s 3.44.

There were 40 players that donned the India jersey across all formats. Out of those, there were eight players who donned the national colours for the first time ever in an international game. Vijay Shankar, Shivam Dube, Navdeep Saini, Shubman Gill, Rahul Chahar, Mayank Markande, Shahbaz Nadeem and Mohammed Siraj made their international debuts in 2019.

However, there were a few who deserved a chance as well and were unlucky not to feature in the national team. Thus, here are five such cricketers who were unlucky not to play for India in 2019.

Here are five cricketers who deserved to get a chance of 2019:

1. Sanju Samson

Sanju Samson was touted as the next big thing in Indian cricket. The talent and the ability was on display in the IPL and also, in the 2014 Under-19 World Cup. He may not have the best of records in domestic cricket but Samson is a high-quality player and is rated pretty highly.

In fact, the Kerala player also made his India debut back in 2015 in a T20I against Zimbabwe. He made a laborious 24-ball 19 as India lost the game. That is the only international Samson has ever played. With some good form behind him this season, including a good IPL season, the Kerala wicket-keeper batsman received another call-up in the Indian T20 side to face Bangladesh.

However, he continued to warm the benches for six games in a row. Along with Manish Pandey who barely played four games in 2019, the 25-year-old didn’t get a single opportunity. But when India did go to Thiruvananthapuram for the second T20I against West Indies, it was Samson who got the biggest roar. He has continued to sit on the sidelines even against Sri Lanka.