‘Rightfully Open Alongside Abhishek’: Former CSK Player Applauds Sanju Samson’s T20 World Cup 2026 Call-Up

On December 20, 2025, BCCI announced the squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup and a five-match series T20I against New Zealand. Notably, Shubman Gill was dropped from the squad after his underwhelming performance in the white ball format this year.

Following the announcement, former ace India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his delight at Sanju Samson's call-up. With Gill snubbed, Sanju Samson has been guaranteed a spot at the top to open with Abhishek Sharma. Additionally, Ashwin claimed that the team was ready for a title defense.

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Ashwin Aplauds Ishan Kishan On His Return

Alongside the omission of Shubman Gill, Jitesh Sharma was also excluded from the World Cup squad, opening a spot for fallen out of favor Ishan Kishan. The upcoming T20 World Cup will be Kishan's first match in this format since 2023 against Australia.

While sharing his delight on X, Ashwin shared, "Title defence loading. Superb squad. Great to see Rinku back and happy for my thambi Sanju, who will now rightfully open alongside Abhishek. Adipoli Chetta! Huge applause for Ishan, who showed his hunger by grinding hard in the domestic circuit."

For the unversed, Sanju Samson was India's leading run-getter last year with 436 runs from 12 innings. However, the player fell down the pecking order after the return of vice captain Shubman Gill.

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India's T20 World Cup Squad

Suryakum Yadav was retained as the team skipper, while Axar Patel was made the vice captain after Shubman Gill's omission from the squad. Other than that, Rinku Singh and Ishan Kishan were also named in the squad for the upcoming tournament.

India squad for T20 World Cup: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Tilak Varma, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Axar Patel (vice-captain), Arshdeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.