Sunil Gavaskar Gives His Opinion On Sanju Samson-Yuzvendra Chahal Asia Cup 2023 Snub, Says ‘You Look At The Balance Of The Team’

New Delhi: The Asia Cup 2023 squad was announced on Monday and a number of star players are missing from the 17-man squad. Two of the notable stars missing from the team are Sanju Samson and Yuzvendra Chahal. Even though Samson has been chosen as a stand-by player to KL Rahul but the Rajasthan Royals spinner wasn’t preferred over the likes of Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel.

Former India captain and legend Sunil Gavaskar feels that if Sanju and Chahal’s performance would’ve been a notch better, things would’ve been different. He opines that the selectors have gone for a proper balance to the team.

If Sanju Samson had got more runs then he would have been a certainty in the team. So also with Chahal. But sometimes you are looking at the balance of the team. The selectors are sometimes hamstrung by the fact that they are looking at different aspects like fielding and what they can do with the bat,” Gavaskar told India Today. 

The 1983 World Cup winner believes that Kuldeep Yadav is a batter batsman than the very spinner playing down the order and that is why he is been preferred over Yuzi Chahal.

“Kuldeep Yadav is a better batter than Kuldeep down the order, maybe that’s why he gets the nod ahead of Chahal. In terms of Samson as well, because of the fact that he is an all-rounder as he can keep wickets as well. These are the factors that selection committee will look at. Sanju Samson is only 29 so I don’t think that this is going to be his last World Cup. There is plenty of time for him to get into the Indian team. I think it is a very good side and we should back them,” he said.

The Asia Cup 2023 starts from September 30, with India kick-starting their campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on Sep 2nd.

India Squad | Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (VC), Ravindra Jadeja, Ishan Kishan, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Md. Shami, Md. Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna.

Sanju Samson is traveling stand-by player.