India wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson has become the talk of social media during his break from cricket after the recent T20I series against Sri Lanka. The Kerala-born cricketer was seen playing football on a wet basketball court in a video that quickly went viral on social media. The footage, shared on X (formerly Twitter) by a fan, captures Samson enjoying a rainy day with friends.
Samson, who was last seen in action during the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka, is currently enjoying his time off cricket. In that series, he was dismissed for a duck in the two matches he played. Samson was also not included in the subsequent ODI series. Despite being part of India’s T20 World Cup 2024-winning squad, Samson did not feature in any matches during the tournament, as Rishabh Pant was preferred as the wicketkeeper-batter. India secured the T20 World Cup title by defeating South Africa in the final.
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Samson’s absence extends to domestic cricket as well. He was not named in any of the four squads for the 17th edition of the Duleep Trophy, set to be played from September 5 to 22 in Anantapur and Bengaluru. The squads include players like Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, and Shreyas Iyer. Ishan Kishan, who has been out of the Indian team, will participate in the tournament after a strong domestic performance.
Samson expressed his surprise at being omitted from the ODI squad, despite scoring 108 against South Africa in his last match. Speaking at a press conference for the Kerala Cricket League, Samson emphasized his focus on contributing positively to the team. "I will just go and play whenever they select me," Samson said.
The 29-year-old has played 16 ODI matches and 30 T20 internationals, scoring 510 runs in ODIs at an average of 56.67 and 444 T20I runs at an average of 19.3.
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