Overview:
Although Samson managed to retain his place in the team during the Continental Cup, the writing was on the wall, and one failure against the Mitchell Marsh-led team allowed the team management to bench Sanju.
India dropped Sanju Samson after just one batting opportunity in the ongoing five-match T20I series against Australia. Jitesh Sharma was added to the Playing XI in the third T20I at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart on November 2. The right-hander was promoted to the No.3 slot in the second contest at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, but the change failed as the batter managed just 2 runs.
Samson, who had scored three hundreds as an opener, was demoted after Shubman Gill returned to the T20I side for the Asia Cup 2025. Although Samson managed to retain his place in the team during the Continental Cup, the writing was on the wall, and one failure against the Mitchell Marsh-led team allowed the team management to bench Sanju.
Former India player Parthiv Patel defended the move, saying that Samson’s exclusion was not due to his ordinary performance but was a tactical move, considering the conditions and requirements.
Apart from Samson, Harshit Rana and Kuldeep Yadav were also dropped, with Arshdeep Singh and Washington Sundar replacing the two players.
Playing XIs
Australia: 1 Mitchell Marsh (capt), 2 Travis Head, 3 Josh Inglis (wk), 4 Tim David, 5 Mitchell Owen, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Matt Short, 8 Xavier Bartlett, 9 Nathan Ellis, 10 Sean Abbott, 11 Matt Kuhnemann
India: 1 Shubman Gill, 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Axar Patel, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Jasprit Bumrah