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The Judgment Day for those in the fray for a selection into the Indian team for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 draws near. On Sunday (April 28), BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar, who is on his way from Spain, is reportedly set to meet India captain Rohit Sharma in New Delhi on the sidelines of the ongoing IPL 2024. Rohit is currently in the capital city for Mumbai Indians’ match against Delhi Capitals on Saturday at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
The discussions around the possible World Cup have grown more intense by the day, with IPL 2024 offering varied possibilities for experts and veterans to debate. One of those talks have been around the wicketkeeping role. As many as six players – Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Jitesh Sharma and Dhruv Jurel had entered the race to grab the two possible spots in the Indian squad ahead of the start of the IPL 2024 season. By the end of the first half of the season, while Jurel, unfortunately, fell out of reckoning amid the lack of runs for Rajasthan Royals, veteran cricketer Dinesh Karthik joined the race with a few many former cricketers like Ambati Rayudu backing his case.
After 41 matches in the ongoing IPL 2024 season, Delhi Capitals skipper Pant stands top of the run-scoring chart with 342 runs in nine matches, laced with three half-centuries, at a strike rate of 161.32. Samson, the captain of Rajasthan Royals, stand second on the list with 314 runs in eight games, comprising three fifties, at a strike rate of 152.42. Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul, with 287 runs in seven games at a strike rate of 140, is third, followed by Ishan Kishan with 192 runs in eight matches and Karthik with 172 runs at a phenomenal strike rate of 209.75 in four innings.
According to a report in PTI, Pant has more or less sealed his place as the team’s No. 1 keeper-batter and also as a designated finisher. Given the numbers mentioned above, Samson should be second in the pecking order, but the report mentioned that Rahul holds a slight advantage over the RR star owing to his range of strokes. And it also is, despite Rahul not playing as a middle-order batter in IPL 2024, which is where the keeper-batter will be slotted in the Indian team.
In 2022, before the start of the IPL tournament, India captain Rohit was full of praise for Samson, as he backed the star batter for a place in the Indian team for the T20 World Cup that year. “His back-foot play is superb, some of the shots you must have seen during the IPL, the pick-up pull, the cut shots, standing and delivering over bowler’s head. Those kinds of shots are not easy to play and I believe when we go to Australia, you need those kind of shot-making ability and Samson does has it in him,” he had said.
Samson carved out a 458-run season that year in IPL, at a strike rate of 146.79, but got only two opportunities for India after the tournament, where the team played 16 T20I matches in the build-up to the World Cup, which included the Asia Cup event.
In 2023, Samson was once again in the reckoning for the backup wicketkeeping spot in the Indian side for the ODI World Cup amid Rahul’s fitness concerns. He was given an opportunity on the tour of the West Indies, where he even scored a 41-ball 51, but it seemed Samson was always a stand-by option for the selectors who only waited for Rahul to regain his fitness. The 29-year-old did eventually make the Asia Cup squad last August, but on the condition that the LSG skipper was yet to get a medical clearance from the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. Rahul later got the green signal and a heartbroken Samson was sent back home and later was snubbed from the World Cup squad.
The Kerala-based cricketer would have missed out on being in the scheme of things for the 2024 T20 World Cup as well after the BCCI selectors ignored him for the T20I series against Australia and South Africa last November and December, respectively. But Samson announced his name in the race with a stunning maiden international century in the ODI series against South Africa, which later saw him being picked for the home series against Afghanistan, where he managed only one opportunity.
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