Sanju Samson Eyes ODI Comeback with Vijay Hazare Trophy Performance

Sanju Samson, the Indian wicketkeeper-batsman, will also be seen playing for Kerala in the domestic one-day competition, which is known as the Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT), before the T20 World Cup. The Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) revealed the list of players for the Vijay Hazare Trophy on Sunday. Sanju Samson has been included in that list. The leadership responsibility has been given to budding batsman Rohan Kunnummal.

Samson did not make it to the Vijay Hazare Trophy last year due to some internal conflict with the KCA. However, now he has a great chance to get back into the ODI squad if he performs exceedingly well in this tournament. The reason behind this is that Rishabh Pant, who is considered as the reserve wicketkeeper for ODIs, has performed poorly in the limited-overs format. Meanwhile, Sanju Samson has an average of over 56 in his ODI career, including one century and three half-centuries.

In addition to Sanju, the team also includes experienced players MD Nidhish and Vishnu Vinod. Young spinner Vignesh Puthur, who caught everyone's attention with his impressive performances for the Mumbai Indians (MI) in IPL 2025, has also been selected. Kerala has been placed in Group E this time, where it will face strong teams like Tripura, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Puducherry, and Tamil Nadu.

This season, Kerala's performance in domestic tournaments has been disappointing. The team failed to progress beyond the group stage in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and its performance in the Ranji Trophy also fell short of expectations. Now, the team will look to improve its image by performing better in the 50-over format.

Kerala's Vijay Hazare Trophy squad: Rohan Kunnummal (captain), Sanju Samson, Vishnu Vinod (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Azharuddin (wicketkeeper), Ahmed Imran, Salman Nizar, Abhishek J. Nair, Krishna Prasad, Akhil Scaria, Abhijeet Praveen V, Biju Narayanan, Ankit Sharma, Baba Aparajith, Vignesh Puthur, Nidheesh MD, Asif KM, Abhishek P. Nair, Sharafuddeen NM, Eden Appleby TOM.