'Very shocking' - Fans feel for Sanju Samson after his non-selection in India's T20 World Cup squad

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced India’s 15-member squad for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 on September 12, Monday. And batter Sanju Samson wasn't considered. He had missed the preceding Asia Cup 2022 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Samson is not even named among the standby players for the Indian team for the mega event that is set to begin on October 16 in Australia. He last played in a T20I in the India tour of West Indies, which ended on August 7, where he featured in only two out of the five matches in the series. 

Samson, having fared well in recent times, has scored 179 runs in six T20Is with an average of 44.75 this year and a strike rate of 158.40. His continual non-selection has been highly criticised by the fans and has been one of the main talking points in the Indian cricketing fraternity. 

Rishabh Pant gets T20 World Cup call-up, Mohammed Shami on standby

Samson also had a decent outing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 with Rajasthan Royals (RR), scoring 458 runs in 17 games with a strike rate of 146.79. And many fans have also expressed their dissatisfaction with the selection of Rishabh Pant as he has been struggling with his form with the bat in the T20 circuit.

Some of the other notable names missing from the squad are fast bowlers Deepak Chahar and Mohammed Shami, who are among the standby players. Others on standby are batter Shreyas Iyer and leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi. The Indian camp will be led by Rohit Sharma and his deputy KL Rahul. 

The squad boasts of the top-order batters Virat Kohli and Deepak Hooda, with the middle-order lineup of Suryakumar Yadav, along with wicketkeeper-batters Dinesh Karthik and Pant. India have gone with a bowling attack of pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh and Harshal Patel, and spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal. India have two all-rounders in the squad with pacer Hardik Pandya and spinner Axar Patel.

Here's how Twitter reacted to Samson's non-selection:

It's very shocking Sanju Samson is not in any India's squad, not in T20 world cup squad and not even for Australia and South Africa series.

— CricketMAN2 (@ImTanujSingh) September 12, 2022

Being Sanju Samson fan is the toughest task nowadays 😢

The only reason is @BCCI

Don't you guys think that he deserved 😡 pic.twitter.com/ByeUZlXdjE

— Rockstar MK 🇮🇳 (@RockstarMK11) September 12, 2022

Why was sanju samson not selected. #SanjuSamsonforT20WC #SanjuSamson @bhogleharsha

— anoop pappachan (@PappachanAnoop) September 12, 2022

Can't believe what they saw in hooda with only few good scores against clown teams and not in Sanju all these years. Sanju Samson would have given his best performance if they would have believed in him🤦🏻‍♂️ Hooda was clueless against srilanka, afg and Pakistan in Asia Cup🤷🏻‍♂️

— கோகுல் (𝓖𝓸𝓴𝓾𝓵) (@crifanticbuddy) September 12, 2022

Wrong squad....were Sanju samson, ishan kishan
Pant needs break...he is not totally fit....his stomach his coming middle

— Amit (@Amit_srt) September 12, 2022

Wow Rishabh Got 57 Trail Matches didn't performed in single match but playing 2nd T20 World Cup Again....

He Played 1 Odi and 1 t20 world cup already...
Why Sanju Samson is Out ????

— 🇮🇳 Harsh Godghate 🇮🇳 (@GodghateHarshal) September 12, 2022