Notably, the series opener was washed out in Wellington, and when stand-in captain Hardik Pandya revealed the India XI for the second T20I at the toss, the name of Samson was missing from the list. The Men in Blue went with the likes of Shreyas Iyer and Deepak Hooda in the middle order.
“To get a game, a proper 20-over game is exciting. We still need to assess the conditions and see how the wicket is behaving. If the wicket doesn’t help you, and you try playing shots and lose wickets, and it doesn’t rain, you might be in a difficult position. We’ll assess the situation, and if the rain comes, we’ll reassess,” said Hardik at the toss.
Samson’s last appearance in the shortest format came during the tour of West Indies in August 2022. He was not included in the 2022 Asia Cup as well as the T20 World Cup 2022 squads. He last wore the Indian jersey in the ODI series against South Africa a couple of months ago.
Samson was recently named for the New Zealand tour and his fans expected him to be back in the playing XI. But when the Twitterati saw Samson warming the bench, they didn’t mince a word to criticize the Indian team management.
Here is how netizens reacted:
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