World Cup 2023: Hayden includes Samson in his Indian squad, leaves out both wrist spinners

Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden called out his Indian squad for the upcoming World Cup 2023 and made some big calls

New Delhi: Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden called out his Indian squad for the upcoming World Cup 2023 and made some big calls. Hayden added wicket-keeper batter Sanju Samson to the squad and affronted Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal.

Talking to Star Sports, Hayden said, “The job which he hates the most is selecting any squad for the tournament. In the Indian context, I would love to see Sanju Samson in the squad. Also India needs more all-rounders than batters so Axar Patel will be a better choice than Tilak Verma.”

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The 15-member Indian squad picked by Hayden follows: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Ishan Kishan and Axar Patel.

The Indian squad for the Asia Cup 2023 was announced on August 21, 2023, with some surprising names in it. The most anticipated was one of the exclusions of wizard spinner Yuzvendra Chahal. KL Rahul not being completely fit got selected in the squad.

The decision to pick Kuldeep over Chahal was influenced by eyeing the team balance. Axar performing well both with the bat and ball will provide more depth to the batting. Kuldeep’s performance in past years has been really impressive, in the last 9 ODI matches he took 18 wickets. Samson will travel as a backup player in the Asia Cup.

He is a potential replacement for KL Rahul who is completely recovering from niggle injury. The wicket-keeper batter performed extremely well in last year’s IPL season and against Ireland, but still didn’t make it to the squad.