The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selected Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant as the two wicket-keeper batters in India's T20 World Cup 2024 squad.
Rishabh Pant, the captain of Delhi Capitals (DC), has been in exceptional batting form since his return to international cricket, accumulating 446 runs in 13 outings.
Meanwhile, Sanju Samson, the captain of Rajasthan Royals (RR), has been in red hot form during IPL 2024, amassing 486 runs in 12 games. Samson's stellar performances have been instrumental in his RR's journey to the IPL 2024 playoffs.
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Team India skipper Rohit Sharma faces a challenging decision regarding whom to include in the playing 11 between Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson.
Sharing his perspective on which batter should be given preference in India's playing 11, former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir believes that Pant should be favored over Samson as the first-choice wicketkeeper.
"Both have equal quality. Sanju has amazing quality, and even Rishabh has amazing quality. If I had to pick, I’d probably pick Rishabh Pant because he is a natural middle-order batter. Sanju, if you see in IPL, he has batted at number three. Rishabh has batted at number five, six and seven I think," Gambhir said on Sportskeeda.
Gambhir feels that Pant being a left-hander will add variety to India's playing 11 combination.
“Looking at Team India’s combination, we need the wicketkeeper in that position and not in the top order. So I’d start with Rishabh Pant. Plus, he is a left-hander in the middle-order, which gives you a left hand-right hand combination," he added.
India squad For T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.