After having a decent knock in the opening match of the ODI series on Friday in Auckland, Sanju Samson was dropped from the playing XI for the second match. And, the decision left fans on Twitter in surprise at captain Shikhar Dhawan and head coach VVS Laxman as Deepak Hooda came in place. However, at the end of the second game, which eventually got washed out due to rain after just 12.5 overs of play, Dhawan revealed the reason why they dropped Samson.

He was out through the entire T20I series with Hardik Pandya considering it an “unfortunate” case and sharing the reason to be “strategic”. But Sanju Samson was picked for the Auckland ODI where he scored a 38-ball 36 while also adding a 96-run stand along with Shreyas Iyer.

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“We wanted the sixth bowler to come in, so Sanju Samson missed out and Hooda came in. And Chahar was picked because he can swing the ball really well. A few of our guys are resting but this side is still strong, shows the depth of our squad,” Shikhar Dhawan explained.

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Speaking about the game which was abandoned due to rain, Shikhar Dhawan said, “Not in our control, you just have to wait. We were waiting to get the game started, can’t help it. Now looking forward to the 3rd game. I was quite surprised with the surface, I thought it would be seaming quite a bit, but it wasn’t as much as the last match. It was good to bat on and to see Shubman perform this way was very encouraging.”