'We feel for you Sanju Samson' - Fans empathize with Samson after his exclusion from Playing XI in 2nd T20I

After the first T20I between India and New Zealand was washed out due to rain, the action has now shifted to Mount Maunganui. While the weather forecast predicted the rain to play a huge part again, thankfully, the rain gods have shown mercy on the 2nd T20I thus far and it is underway without any disruption.

India’s road to the T20 World Cup 2024 preparation starts with the series and Hardik Pandya would love to bag the series and make his case stronger as India's next leader in the T20Is.

One of the areas that the Indian management had to address in terms of their team combination was picking between Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant for the middle-order role. Also, there was high hopes of Shubman Gill making his T20I debut alongside the introduction of Umran Malik.

However, to the surprise of all, all three Samson, Gill and Malik haven’t been picked up in the playing XI for the second T20I and the management has gone in with Ishan Kishan and Rishabh Pant at the top of the order.  

Deepak Hooda, who was benched for most of the T20 World Cup 2022 has been picked in the XI. Interestingly, Samson and Gill were among the standout performers in the ODI series in the West Indies and Zimbabwe. Also, they were quite impressive in the home series (ODI) against South Africa and it looked like they were sure starters in the XI.  

Samson has scored 296 runs in 16 T20I games at a strike rate of 135.15 so far and his recent performances in ODIs have also been good. Samson has a huge fan base in India because of his elegant stroke play and the immense potential he possesses and hence social media has gone crazy over Samson’s exclusion from the XI.  

Here’s how Twitter reacted to Samson not getting a chance: