“India will have to drop him to maintain balance,” former India opener Wasim Jaffer opens up on Sanju Samson’s exclusion from the starting XI

The Indian team will play New Zealand in the penultimate One day International and it will be very important for the men in blue after they lost the first ODI and the second one was washed out. So the team needs to buck up and get a win to at least level the series and leave the country with pride.

However there are plenty of selection conundrum and former Indian opener Wasim Jaffer feels that the team management will have to take bold calls. Jaffer shared how the team needs to bench Sanju Samson if they need a sixth bowling option. He explained during his chat on ESPN Cricinfo how the top five of the Indian team is irreplaceable right now.

He shared his concern on how Samson would have played if India had one of Hardik Pandya or Ravindra Jadeja available. While many people are pointing fingers at Rishabh Pant and want to see him getting dropped from the team rather than Samson, Jaffer highlighted how Pant his vice captain and how his record in 50-over cricket has not been too shabby.

He highlighted how the top five in this Indian team pick themselves on current form as he said, ”When you look at India’s top five, there isn’t anyone that you can drop. Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill are at the top, and then there’s Shreyas Iyer, who has been in tremendous form in ODIs. You can’t think of dropping Suryakumar Yadav.”

Jaffer also explained the Pant criticism and pointed out how for balance Samson needs to be dropped. “Rishabh Pant is the vice-captain of the team and has been impressive in this particular format. So when you want to add a sixth bowler, Sanju Samson is the one who has to make way. India have to drop him to maintain the balance of the team when they play without Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja,” Jaffer explained.

Many fans were not pleased as Sanju Samson was dropped from the second ODI team though it did not matter much as the game was washed out but it has been the trend by the Indian cricket team and in future it looks like this will continue mainly because of India’s lack of allround options in the starting eleven.