Mumbai, India

India chief selector Ajit Agarkar has shared his take on dropping Sanju Samson from the upcoming ODI squad of white-ball tour of Sri Lanka. Samson was most recently part of India's five-match T20I tour of Zimbabwe which the Shubman Gill-led team won 4-1.

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Speaking at a press conference on Monday (Jul 22) ahead of Indian team's departure for Sri Lanka, Agarkar explained the reasoning behind dropping the wicketkeeper-batter.

“Every player left out feels hard done. You’ve got to see who’s picked ahead. At this stage, we had the opportunity to send guys to Zimbabwe. Sometimes it’s just the way things go. Tough to stuff all in 15,” Agarkar said in Mumbai.

Also Read: 'Becomes a bit difficult for...,' BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar on naming Surya as T20I skipper over Hardik

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Samson last played an ODI in December 2023, scoring a brilliant century against South Africa in the series played right after the ODI World Cup 2023.

It is to be noted that the selectors seem to back KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant as the potential wicketkeepers in the long run including the 2025 Champions Trophy.

As for T20Is, Samson has retained his place with KL Rahul, who didn't play in the 2024 T20 World Cup either, not being able to make the cut.

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India's will be playing three ODIs and three T20Is on the tour which starts with the 20-over games from July 27. The 50-over games will be played from August 2 to 7.

India ODI Squad - Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed and Harshit Rana

India T20I squad - Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Shubman Gill (vice-captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Mohammed Siraj.