Sunil Gavaskar Names His India XI For Asia Cup, Makes Bold Sanju Samson Call

NDTV

7 hours ago

India great Sunil Gavaskar made some bold selection calls as he named his India XI for the Asia Cup 2025. The return of Shubman Gill has made things quite tricky, as far as the top-order is concerned. Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson had formed a formidable opening pair in T20Is of late but it looks like Gill's return will force the management to break that partnership. Some feel that Gill's inclusion would see Samson warm the bench. But, Gavaskar doesn't think so.
In a chat with Sports Today, Gavaskar said that Samson and Gill can co-exist in the same XI, with the former taking up a middle-order role in the team.
"He can still be in the team as somebody batting down the order. He can bat at 5 or 6. He shouldn't be left out, after all he's the wicket-keeper. Sanju is a very gifted player; he can adapt," said Gavaskar. "He is used to batting down the order, we shouldn't be too worried about him, he's a class act."
"Your first choice XI and your batting order will depend on a lot of things, like what the pitch is like, who the opposition is, what their bowling attack is. The two certainties would be Abhishek and Shubman Gill, the two Punjab boys opening the batting together, that would be my opening pair. 3 and 4 would be Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav," said Gavaskar
"Depending on what the score is or what you need, you either put Hardik Pandya a little bit ahead, or Sanju Samson goes in to bat, there is also somebody like Axar Patel who can come in and bat, how well he batted in the final of the T20 World Cup in Barbados. That would be the way to go," said Gavaskar
In the bowling unit, Gavaskar doesn't think Harshit Rana will make the XI, preferring the pairing of Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh.
Rinku Singh, it's tough for them but that's what it is."