New Delhi: Sunil Gavaskar believes that several factors contributed to India’s decision to pick Rishabh Pant over Sanju Samson for the 2024-25 Champions Trophy highlighting Pant’s left-handed batting style and superior wicketkeeping skills. The squad for both the upcoming three-match ODI series against England and the Champions Trophy was announced on Saturday (January 18). Samson didn’t feature in any of India’s three ODIs in 2023 while Pant played one. Despite Samson’s better statistics with an average of 56.66 compared to Pant’s 33.50 his sample size is considerably smaller with just 16 matches. Very tough because the man has been scoring hundreds and hundreds of runs Gavaskar told India Today. There is no excuse to leave him out. But he was pitted against Rishabh Pant who we all know can be a game-changer. Plus Pant is a left-hander and he is probably the better wicketkeeper although he might not be the better batter than Samson. Pant can change the game perhaps a little more than Samson and that’s reason why Samson missed out. But Samson must not feel dejected because all Indian cricket lovers will have sympathy for him for what he has achieved Gavaskar added. In T20 cricket Samson had a standout 2024 scoring two centuries against South Africa whereas Pant struggled to make a significant impact in the format. Vijay Hazare Trophy absence hurt Sanju Samsons chances? Samsons situation appeared to worsen when he didnt feature in the 2024-25 Vijay Hazare Trophy which started while Pant was in Australia for Test matches. He had missed the teams training camp and despite confirming his availability was not picked for the matches. The sorry saga of the Kerala Cricket Association and Sanju Samson – the player wrote to KCA in advance regretting his inability to attend a training camp between the SMA and the Vijay Hazare Trophy tournaments and was promptly dropped from the squad – has now resulted in Sanjus exclusion from the Indian team Kerala politician Shashi Tharoor wrote on X on Saturday. A batsman who has a highest score of 212* in the Hazare who averages 56.66 in ODIs for India (including a century in his last outing against South Africa) is having his career destroyed by the egos of cricket administrators. Doesnt it bother the KCA bosses that by leaving Sanju out they ensured Kerala didn’t even reach the quarter-finals of the Hazare? Where does this leave him? he added.