sanju samson
On one hand, the Indian cricket team is busy playing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on Australia tour. At the same time, domestic cricket is very popular in India. After Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024, now Vijay Hazare Trophy is going to start from December 21 for which Kerala team has been announced. India’s powerful opening batsman Sanju Samson could not get a place in the team selected for Vijay Hazare. The move follows an internal decision to include only those players who participated in the preparation camp before the tournament.
Samson led Kerala in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMT) 2024-25, where they missed qualifying for the knockouts by winning four of their 6 matches. Samson, who was originally included in the 30-man probable list, was left out of the final list. Samson, who scored two T20 centuries on the South Africa tour, could score only 135 runs including a half-century in five out of 6 matches for Kerala under Syed Mushtaq Ali.
Bad form became the reason
According to the report of ESPNcricinfo, Samson had written a letter to the association explaining his unavailability for the camp, but KCA has decided to stick to its original decision. Senior batsman Sachin Baby is also unavailable due to an injury sustained during the SMAT, so batsman Salman Nizar has been named captain for the 50-over competition. On the other hand, Manish Pandey’s name has not been included in the Karnataka team. Due to poor form he could not get a place in the team. In such a situation, it seems difficult for him to return soon.
Kerala Squad: Salman Nizar (captain), Rohan Kunnumal, Shaun Roger, Mohammad Azharuddin (wicketkeeper), Anand Krishnan, Krishna Prasad, Jalaj Saxena, Aditya Sarwate, Sijoman Joseph, Basil Thampi, Basil NP, Nidhish MD, Eden Apple Tom, Sharafuddin, Akhil Scaria. , Vishweshwar Suresh, Vaishakh Chandran, Ajnaas M (wicketkeeper).
Karnataka squad: Mayank Agarwal (captain), Shreyas Gopal (vice-captain), S Nikin Jos, KV Aneesh, R Smaran, KL Srijit, Abhinav Manohar, Hardik Raj, Vishak Vijaykumar, Vasuki Kaushik, Vidyadhar Patil, Kishan Bedare, Abhilash Shetty, Manoj Bhandage, Praveen Dubey, Lavnith Sisodia.
