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'For just the one reason...' - Dinesh Karthik reveals why Rishabh Pant got picked over Sanju Samson

According to former India cricket team wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik, the selectors were more likely to choose left-handed batter Rishabh Pant for the Champions Trophy than Sanju Samson.

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Varun Sarwate
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According to former India cricket team wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik, the selectors were more likely to choose left-handed batter Rishabh Pant for the Champions Trophy over Sanju Samson. India did not include the Kerala keeper-batter in their roster, not even as a travelling reserve. Karthik analysed the choice and suggested people shouldn't be surprised because India already has two keepers in their team.

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For Team India lately, Sanju Samson has been playing at an exceptionally high level. He last played an ODI game against South Africa at Paarl on December 21, 2023. Meanwhile, the 30-year-old has amassed three hundred in his last seven Twenty20 Internationals. However, Samson's strong batting performances did not earn him a spot in the Indian team for the 2025 Champions Trophy.

KL Rahul will be the backup for Rishabh Pant, who was selected by Indian selectors as the first-choice wicketkeeper-batter. For many fans worldwide, the choice to once again disregard Samson was shocking, but former Indian wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik asserted that it was inevitable. Karthik believes that Pant and Samson were directly competing for the wicketkeeper-batter position and that Pant's left-handedness was taken into consideration.

"It almost had to happen, isn't it? It was either Rishabh Pant or Sanju Samson. I know you can look at both of them as pure batters, but I think they have turned towards Rishabh Pant for just the one reason: because he is a left-hander. He can give that differential variable that they are looking for in the batting order. But Sanju Samson was close, and the fact that he didn't play in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, I am sure, has played a part in that too," Karthik said on Cricbuzz's HeyCBwithDK show.

Sanju Samson opts out of the Vijay Hazare Trophy

Samson was reportedly not given a spot on the Indian squad because BCCI officials were annoyed by his decision to forgo the Vijay Hazare Trophy for Kerala. Samson, who played for his state side in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy, was a member of India's T20 World Cup 2024 winning squad. However, he was controversially left off of the final domestic 50-over tournament roster.

BCCI Sanju Samson Rishabh Pant Indian Cricket Team Dinesh Karthik
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