Sanju Samson or Rishabh Pant: Who will get picked in India's Champions Trophy squad? Know who has the upper-hand
Almost all of the participating teams have unveiled their respective squads for next month's Champions Trophy 2025 which is slated to be hosted by Pakistan and the UAE in hybrid-model system. The BCCI though have not announced Team India's squad for the mega event of this year yet.
Rajeev Shukla, the Vice-president of thr BCCI has stated that a meeting to discuss the matters related to the team will be held on the 18th and 19th of January and it's anticipated that the squad of Team India will be announced post the conclusion of this meeting.
However, before the official unveiling of the squad, many kinds of speculations have started to spread in the Cricket Community. Some Veterans and Cricket experts have even revealed their predicted squad of the Indian Cricket Team for the upcoming ICC event.
Amidst all of the speculations, a lot of focus is being implemented on the wicketkeeper position. Who will be the two wicket-Keepers that will be selected in the Men in Blue's squad ahead of the Champions Trophy? Many reports have already started to spread rumors about the WK spot and one name that's coming in everybody's mind is KL Rahul.
Sanju has the upper hand in One Day Internationals
One of Sanju Samson or Rishabh Pant is likely to get picked for the 2nd wicket-Keeper's spot in the squad. The ODI statistics of both the players are giving testimony as to who has the upper hand in terms of getting picked in the team. If we take a look at the current career statistics, Samson seems to have the upper hand in this regard.
Rishabh Pant has participated in a total of 31 One-Day International contests so farfar, in which he has amassed a total of 871 runs at a decent average ofof 33.50?. He has also slammed one century and five fifties with a strike rate of 106.21. However, Sanju has better overall ODI Stats.
The Rajasthan Royals skipper has taken part in 16 One-Day International contests, in which he has scored 510 runs at a good average of 56.66 with the help of one century and three half-centuries at a decent strike rate of 99.60.
Samson has performed in a better way in the last five ODI matches too..
If we compare the last five One-Day International innings of both players, the 30-year-old has had the upper hand in this regard as well. He has managed to score 216 runs in his last five ODI innings which includes a fifty and a magnificent century.
He played a remarkable knock of 108 runs in his previous 50-over inning and the thing which works in his favour is that all of his previous five ODI knocks have come on foreign soil. His scores have read 37, 9, 51, 12 and 108 runs in his last five One-Day International appearances.
Rishabh Pant on the other hand, hasn't really done much with the bat in ODI Cricket. In his last five appearances in the format, he has managed to score just 156 runs. He has played an unbeaten century knock in this processand his scores in his last five ODI innings are - 0, 125*, 15, 10 and 6 runs.
Thus, keeping all of these statistics in mind, Sanju Samson seems to be the better overall pick for the 2nd wicket-Keeper's spot in Team India's squad for the forthcoming Champions Trophy 2025.