Indian cricket team wicket-keeper batter Sanju Samson won hearts with a brilliant gesture during the Ranji Trophy match between Kerala and Uttar Pradesh. After the day’s play, Samson went to meet the attending fans and posed for pictures with them. In a video shared by Rajasthan Royals on X (formerly called Twitter), Sanju was seen giving a RR cap to a specially-abled fan and then he posed for pictures with him and other spectators. The video earned him a lot of praise and has already gone viral on social media.

Heart is full.pic.twitter.com/DqWnb6Bm7U

— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) January 10, 2024

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli on Sunday made a high-profile comeback to India’s T20 squad for the three homes against Afghanistan with the former also named captain for the series beginning on January 11.

Rohit and Kohli last appeared in a T20 for India in the World Cup semifinal against England in November 2022.

Back then, the two veterans along with KL Rahul were seen to be playing archaic cricket in the powerplay and the team needed to move on from that approach with Hardik Pandya earmarked as the new T20 skipper.

However, Pandya’s own injury in the ODI World Cup along and more recently, Suryakumar Yadav‘s ligament tear, resulted in a lot of inexperience at the top of the order.

The T20 squad also features Sanju Samson and Jitesh Sharma, who will be the two glovesmen with Ishan Kishan being ignored for the shortest format.

Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja, the two Test team certainties, have been rested and Ruturaj Gaikwad isn’t fit to play yet.

All-rounder Shivam Dube has also been named in the squad in Hardik’s absence.

The Afghanistan series will be India’s last before the World Cup, which takes place right after the IPL.

India’s Squad for 3 T20Is against Afghanistan:Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.

(With PTI inputs)