Former Pakistani player Danish Kaneria has stated that there is favouritism within the squad after the Indian team management left out the middle-order batter Sanju Samson from the playing XI against New Zealand in the rain-marred second ODI and the third one as well. However, Kaneria criticized the idea of giving Rishabh Pant too many chances despite his repeated failures in the white-ball format.

Speaking on his YouTube channel on Tuesday, he said: “9:30 – If I talk about ‘zyadti’ (excessiveness), Sanju Samson is the talk of the town. I don’t know what’s the reason behind it, whether it’s politics or if there’s liking or disliking that he gets dropped more often than not and Pant gets more and more opportunities. He was dropped even after scoring 36 runs. The sword always falls only on him.”

On the other hand, stand-in captain Shikhar Dhawan said that they dropped Samson for the team balance as they required all-rounder Deepak Hooda in the team as their sixth bowling option. Meanwhile, Kaneria believes Sanju Samson would have performed well if India had supported him before Rishabh Pant in the limited-overs format

“10:15 – The number of games that Pant got on a trot, if they had given the number of chances to Sanju, he must have performed far better for Team India because he is a player of a different class,” Danish Kaneria concluded.

Here’s a look at Pant and Samson’s ODI numbers:

Sanju Samson – 284 runs in nine inns @71 in 2022

Overall – 330 runs in 11 matches @66

Rishabh Pant – 326 runs in nine inns @40.75 in 2022

Overall – 855 runs in 29 matches @35.62

Impactful performances – Pant vs Samson
ODIs

T20Is:

Meanwhile, the stats differ in T20Is, where Pant has played 25 games, compared to Samson’s 16.

Pant in 2022 T20Is – 364 runs in 21 innings @21.41

Overall – 296 runs in 16 matches @21.14

Samson in 2022 T20Is – 179 runs in six innings @44.75

Overall – 987 runs in 66 matches @22.43