Champions Trophy: Should Sanju Samson be preferred over Rishabh Pant in Team India?

Team India’s aggressive wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant failed to impress during the recently concluded Border Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in which visitors India suffered a humiliating loss. Moreover, Pant also disappointed several fans, team management and experts by playing some careless shots and throwing his wicket away during some crucial periods of the matches.

In response, former India off-spinner Harbhajan singh preferred Sanju Samson over Pant in the upcoming mega event- Champions Trophy.

According to Bhajji (As Harbhajan is popularly known among his fans), Pant should be rested, considering his workload in the five-match Test series against Australia.

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“I feel the selectors should pick Samson instead of Pant in the Indian team for the upcoming Champions Trophy. My vote is with Sanju Samson as he performed well in South Africa and Rishabh recently came back from a long tour of Australia,” said Harbhajan.

Notably, Pant has played just one ODI since his comeback after his accident.

On the other hand, Samson has scored three hundreds in his last seven T20I innings. He also struck a century in the last ODI he played against South Africa. 

Harbhajan also backed Axar Patel over Ravindra Jadeja to be selected in the Indian team for the mega event.