Sanju Samson replaces injured Dhawan in T20I squad against West Indies

Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan has been ruled out of the upcoming three-match T20I series against West Indies, that commences from December 6 due to a knee injury. Wicket-keeper batsman Sanju Samson has been named as the opener’s replacement.

Shikhar Dhawan injured his left knee during a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match for Delhi against Maharashtra earlier this month while diving on the field. He picked up a deep cut and had to be rushed to the hospital for scans.

The BCCI released a statement that said,

“Dhawan suffered a deep cut on his left knee during a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy game against Maharashtra in Surat. The BCCI Medical Team assessed him on Tuesday to review the healing of his wound. The BCCI Medical Team has suggested that Dhawan needs some more time for his stitches to come off and his wound to heal completely.”

“The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Sanju Samson as Dhawan’s replacement for the T20I series,” the statement further read.

Samson was picked in the T20I squad for the series against Bangladesh after he scored a double ton in a Syed Mushtaq game for Kerala but was dropped for the series against Windies despite not playing a game.

It had emerged that the selection committee wanted Samson as a back-up player in the middle order for the series against Bangladesh, from which skipper Virat Kohli was rested. With Kohli returning for the series against Windies, Samson was subsequently dropped.

The MSK-Prasad led selection panel had received a lot of flak for the move, with off-spinner Harbhajan Singh criticising Samson’s ouster as well.

India squad for West Indies T20Is: Virat Kohli (C), Rohit Sharma (VC), KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (WK), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sanju Samson