Former Indian wicketkeeper bat Deep Dasgupta has put his weight behind the selectors and team management after a lot of fans and experts questioned Sanju Samson’s absence from the T20I series against Zimbabwe. Dasgupta said Samson was left out as part of the rotation policy and highlighted why Axar Patel’s absence was not questioned despite him being India’s number T20I spin all-rounder.

Samson was star of the show in the T20 World Cup, scoring 321 runs in five matches of the tournament at a strike rate of almost 200. But, the Kerala batter was dropped after three low scores on the UK tour as he managed only six runs in three games.

“Even Axar Patel wasn’t there for the Zimbabwe series. He’s probably India’s No.1 T20I spinner, yet, why are there no questions about his absence like it is for Sanju? India have too many options, especially with the emergence of Vaibhav Suryavanshi. He had to be picked and given an opportunity to see whether he is prepared for this level,” said Dasgupta on his YouTube channel.

“Unfortunately only two openers can play. So this wasn’t Sanju being rested or dropped. It was done as a trial to see which of the three opening combination works best. There are even other options like Shubman Gill, Sai Sudarshan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya that they’ve not tried.”

Meanwhile, Samson played two of the five T20Is against England and Dasgupta reckons the wicket-keeper bat should have played more against the hosts.

“Sanju should have played more in the previous series against England. It’s important to give the 15 to 30 players in the reckoning for the next big tournament as much gametime as possible. That’s the best way to form the ideal 15 just before a tournament,” said Dasgupta (via the aforementioned source).

Samson would look to make a solid comeback in the T20I team.