By Admin 
Sanju Samson and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi: BCCI last Monday (06 July) announced Team India for the three-match T20 series against Zimbabwe to be held from 23 July. Sanju Samson’s name was missing from the team. The board did not clarify anything about why Sanju was not given a chance, even though he is a part of the Indian team in the ongoing 5-match T20 series against England. The question being raised is whether wicketkeeper batsman Sanju was made a scapegoat for Vaibhav Suryavanshi?
15 year old Vaibhav Suryavanshi made his international debut in the second match of the India-England T20 series. Sanju Samson was dropped from the playing 11 for Vaibhav’s debut. In this way, Sanju has been made a scapegoat for Vaibhav earlier also.
Similarly, perhaps Sanju has been made a scapegoat for the Zimbabwe T20 series. However, it is also worth noting that Sanju was a flop in the last three innings for Team India. They scored 05, 00 and 01 runs respectively. But in the 2026 T20 World Cup, Sanju was the highest run-scorer for Team India. In such a situation, dropping him suddenly really raises big questions.
Sanju Samson’s T20 International career
Sanju has played 65 matches in his T20 International career so far. Batting in 57 innings of these matches, he has scored 1405 runs at an average of 27.01 and strike rate of 155.42. During this period, he scored 3 centuries and 6 half-centuries, in which the high score was 111 runs.
Indian squad for Zimbabwe T20 series
Shreyas Iyer (captain), Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Verma (vice-captain), Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Shivam Dubey, Suryansh Shedge, Rinku Singh, Harsh Dubey, Varun Chakraborty, Prince Yadav, Yash Thakur, Ashok Sharma, Mayank Yadav, Prabhsimran Singh (wicketkeeper).
Also read: IND vs ENG 3rd T20I: Will India-England 3rd T20 be washed out in rain? Scary update on weather