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Cricket PlayersSanju Samson shares three-word message after being ruled out of India vs Sri Lanka T20I series; Hardik, Dhawan react
Sanju Samson was ruled out of the T20I series against Sri Lanka on Wednesday with a knee injury.
Team India star Sanju Samson was ruled out of the ongoing T20I series against Sri Lanka after he hurt his left knee while fielding in the first match of the series in Mumbai. Samson, who had made a return to the side after missing the ODI series against Bangladesh last month, endured a poor outing with the bat on Tuesday as he was dismissed on 5; he was replaced by uncapped Jitesh Sharma in the squad, who produced a number of key outings for the Punjab Kings in the 2022 Indian Premier League season.
"Samson hurt his left knee while attempting to field a ball near the boundary ropes during the first T20I," a BCCI release stated on Wednesday, confirming his absence for the remainder of the series. “He was taken for scans and a specialist opinion this afternoon in Mumbai by the BCCI Medical Team and has been advised rest and rehabilitation.”
On Thursday, Samson took to his official Instagram profile to react to the development. Posting his picture from the first T20I, Samson wrote, “All is well.”
While India's captain for the series – Hardik Pandya – posted a heart emoji on the post, veteran opener Shikhar Dhawan wished Samson a quick recovery from the injury.
Samson has played in 11 ODI and 17 T20I matches for India so far; however, his appearances have remained scattered throughout the cricketing calendar. The wicketkeeper-batter made his T20I debut in 2015 but received a more consistent rope only from 2020, when he appeared in two matches against New Zealand and three against Australia.
In 2022, Samson played in all three T20Is of the series against Sri Lanka in February but wasn't named in the five-match series against South Africa in June, that marked the return of the Indian team to cricketing action after the Indian Premier League. In England the next month, Samson was named in the squad for the first T20I but didn't find a place in the second and third.
The Kerala-born batter eventually missed out on a place in the T20 World Cup squad, with Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant being India's first and second-choice wicketkeepers respectively.
