
Courtesy: BCCI/X
A video of Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir from 2020, in which he was praising wicket-keeper batter Sanju Samson, has resurfaced online after the latter was omitted from the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 squad in favour of Rishabh Pant. After a slew of quality performances in limited-overs cricket from Sanju Samson in recent times, many fans expected his involvement in the Champions Trophy, but it never came to fruition, following which the past words from Gautam Gambhir have become more poignant for them.
Notably, in his last ODI appearance in December 2023, Sanju Samson scored a hundred for India against South Africa at the Boland Park in Paarl, to help the team secure a 2-1 series win. His performances in T20I format over the past year has been quite exemplary, scoring three hundreds in just a handful of innings at the top of the order, making himself a genuine contender for a spot in the final 15-member squad for the Champions Trophy.
If Sanju Samson doesn’t play for India, it’s not his loss, it’s India’s loss: Gautam Gambhir said in 2020
But, Sanju Samson wasn’t picked in the team for the upcoming ICC tournament, while his teammate Rishabh Pant was named as the first-choice wicket-keeper for India despite the presence of KL Rahul in the squad. It led to the fans unearthing a video from the year 2020 when Gautam Gambhir, who has been a vocal advocate of the Kerala-born cricketer, was quoted as saying, “If Sanju Samson doesn’t play for India, it’s not his loss, it’s India’s loss,” while discussing his exclusion from the T20I squad ahead of the World Cup.
Watch the video here:
“We haven’t backed him till now. People sitting in those big rooms, the selection committee should be scratching their heads about why Sanju Samson wasn’t part of the T20 team or the last World Cup,” Gautam Gambhir further said. Moreover, in a recent report, it has been claimed that the Indian head coach wanted Sanju Samson’s inclusion in the Champions Trophy 2025 squad, but captain Rohit Sharma and chief selector Ajit Agarkar were in agreement about picking Rishabh Pant, which eventually got agreed upon after a long deliberation in Mumbai.
The road ahead for Sanju Samson, 30, is going to be quite tough as far as being the part of the Indian ODI set up, especially with new talent emerging on the domestic scene in the 50-overs cricket.