Agarkar Hints Samson Will Not Play In Asia Cup: Chairman of BCCI’s selection committee, Ajit Agarkar, gave subtle hints while announcing the Indian Cricket Team’s squad for the Asia Cup 2025 yesterday, suggesting that wicketkeeper/batter Sanju Samson might not get any playing time as part of the playing XI in the competition.
Agarkar, along with India’s T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav, announced the 15-man squad for the upcoming Asia Cup, to be played in the UAE in September. There were a lot of surprises in this team. While most of these surprises came in the form of unexpected exclusion, a few inclusions raised eyebrows as well.
Shubman Gill, who did not seem to be a part of India’s T20I plans and had not played a game of the format in over a year, was not only included in the squad but was also named vice-captain, taking the position from Axar Patel.
Agarkar Hints Samson Will Not Play In Asia Cup
It should be noted that Gill, despite not having been a regular in the T20Is, is the Indian Cricket Team captain in Tests. In what was a record-breaking series for him as a player and a skipper, the 25-year-old led the Men in Blue to a 2-2 draw in the five-match Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy in England against the Three Lions in his first series as a captain in whites.
And now, with him becoming the T20I vice-captain, and the fact that he is an opener in the shortest format of international cricket, spells disaster for at least one of India’s regular T20I openers.
The two batters who currently open for India in this format are Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma. The two have performed well in the past year, scoring 487 and 535 runs in 16 matches, respectively, over the past year. While Sanju scored three T20I centuries in 2024, Sharma scored a scintillating 135 in his most recent match in the Indian jersey against England in February of this year.
But then, why is Gill’s inclusion in the Asia Cup 2025 squad bad news for Samson in particular and not Abhishek Sharma? Well, here, the hints dropped by Ajit Agarkar come in.
Check Out: Agarkar Hints Samson Will Not Play In Asia Cup
Firstly, while announcing the squad, the head selector announced the name of India’s backup T20 wicketkeeper, Jitesh Sharma, first. While Sanju has been a regular in the national team, Jitesh, as a middle-order batter and keeper, has made sporadic appearances and was clearly behind Samson in the pecking order. However, the announcement might suggest something different entirely.
The second clue came from Agarkar, which all but confirmed Sanju’s removal from the T20I playing XI when the former Indian pacer was discussing Gill’s inclusion in the squad. While talking to the media about Shubman making it to the squad, Agarkar said, “Samson played when Gill was away.”
This suggests that Sanju was always looked at as a replacement for Shubman Gill whenever he returned to the squad.
While these hints might not mean much to the average fan, several experts have chimed in on the hidden meaning of these comments by Agarkar. Former Indian Cricket Team batter and now cricketing pundit Aakash Chopra had this to say about these statements from the chairman of BCCI’s selection committee.
“One thing is very clear about this team. More than the personalities, these decisions have been taken considering the positions. They have done justice to it, which is absolutely ok. I don’t have any issues with it. But Gill’s return means Samson will now not play, and Jitesh Sharma will be the keeper,” Chopra claimed.
Asia Cup 2025 will commence on September 9. The first match India will play will be against the UAE on September 10. Suryakumar Yadav’s men are in Group A of the competition along with the UAE, Oman, and Pakistan.
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