Two unbeaten hundreds and still no ODI slot: Sanju Samson's Afghanistan snub
Sanju Samson has built his IPL 2026 case loud enough to drown out most arguments, and India's selectors still chose silence. The CSK wicketkeeper-batter has been left out of the ODI squad for next month's Afghanistan series, with Ishan Kishan recalled as the backup glove option behind KL Rahul. Two of his three 50-plus scores this season have been unbeaten hundreds, his strike rate sits north of 170, and yet his ODI ticket reads "wait again."
Two unbeaten tons and still no ODI slot
Samson moved to Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2026 trade window in a swap that sent Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran the other way at a reported INR 18 crore valuation, and the runs have followed him. He has racked up 430 runs in 11 matches at an average of 53.75 and a strike rate of 170.63, with two unbeaten centuries already on the board: a 115 not out against Delhi Capitals and a 101 not out off 54 balls that floored Mumbai Indians.
The career tally tells its own story. He crossed 5,000 IPL runs this season, becoming the fastest Indian to that mark by balls faced, with 27 fifties and five IPL hundreds across his long stay at Rajasthan Royals and now Chennai. That is not a player on the edge of selection. That is a player ranked among the most prolific Indian batters the league has produced.
Why Kishan got the nod
Ishan Kishan's recall is its own headline. The Jharkhand wicketkeeper has not played a one-day international since October 2023, when he made 47 against Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. He was dropped from BCCI's central contract list, lost his place across formats, then ground his way back through domestic returns: a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title with Jharkhand, a T20 World Cup squad spot, and a steady run of IPL 2026 contributions for the Mumbai Indians side that has been dismantled around him. The recall, neatly enough, brings him back to the same opponent he last faced in the format.
The selection committee, per the briefing that followed the squad release, leaned on three things. Kishan is left-handed, which thins out the right-hand-heavy top six. He carried recent T20 World Cup form into white-ball cricket. And with KL Rahul nailed on as the first-choice keeper in the ODI setup, the second slot was always going to be a long-format insurance pick rather than a like-for-like Samson replacement.
The case Samson can build from here
None of that softens the read for Samson. He has been India's reserve keeper across white-ball cricket for stretches, featured regularly in India’s T20I setup, and finished as India’s top scorer at the most recent T20 World Cup. The numbers say he is one of the form players in the country. The ODI snub says the selectors still see him as a T20 specialist they will dust off when the format calls for it.
The Afghanistan ODI leg gets underway on June 14 in Dharamsala, with the second on June 17 at Lucknow and the third on June 20 at Chennai. Samson will be off duty when the first ball goes down in Himachal, watching from home as Rahul takes the gloves and Kishan waits his turn against a side Samson himself might have started against if the selection room had tilted the other way. Another IPL run on this scale and the conversation does not get any quieter.
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