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Former India batter Hanuma Vihari has kind of questioned how the Indian team management decides which players get picked, and honestly the whole policy seems, inconsistent or something. He said, using Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma as the examples, that the squad is being measured by different standards, which he feels is not quite fair.

Vihari mentioned that Samson lost his spot after a few performances that didn’t quite work out, but Abhishek Sharma has still kept getting chances even while struggling to score runs in India’s T20I set up. And then in the middle of all that talk, the former India opener also brought up concerns about how Sanju Samson has been handled overall.

To be more specific, Sanju Samson was left out of India’s T20I squad for the current series against Zimbabwe , after his poor showings in England. But the selectors said that the Kerala wicketkeeper-batter wasn’t dropped really, he was just rested for the three-match T20I series. Vihari didn’t buy that explanation at all. He said Samson, actually proved his worth once he came back into the side. The right handed batter played a key role in India’s 2026 T20 World Cup triumph, and he also got the Player of the Tournament award.

The former India batter, also seemed to underline Abhishek Sharma’s kind of uneven form. The left-handed opener has managed only three half centuries in his last 18 T20I innings, which is not ideal, at least not in a calm way. His recent numbers—49, 0, 59, 43, 10, 16, 3, 1, and 8 kind of show the same ongoing struggle, with the bat, time after time. At the same time, Wasim Jaffer recently explained the reason, behind Ishan Kishan’s impressive turnaround.

Hanuma Vihari commeted throgh a video on his YouTube:  “Before the World Cup, Sanju Samson did not perform in five games and lost his spot in the starting 11. He then made a comeback and became Player of the Tournament. In that same tournament, how many runs did Abhishek Sharma make? In the UK series, apart from one fifty, there were no scores at all. Not even in their 20s and 30s, no significant score. One fifty in the last eight matches. If you include the World Cup, three half-centuries in the last 18 matches.”

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The former batter further continued: “How many matches Samson played in the World Cup? Three. And fifties in all three. Abhishek Sharma's highest score in the five matches is 16. Why is no one talking about it? When it comes to Samson, they say he is inconsistent. Fair enough. But he can win high-pressure matches on his day. Abhishek is a player with a lot of hype, but Samson is also equal. He has also performed in the IPL. Why different rules for different players?”

Vihari then clarified that he does not have any personal issue with Abhishek Sharma. He said, every player should be treated in the same manner and selection should happen only through performance. He also added that Abhishek keeps getting those repeated chances, even though the results are not consistently coming. Vihari admitted Abhishek can still win matches on his day, but several other players can do something similar, honestly. He even went further and said that if Prabhsimran Singh gets 10 matches, he could very well score a couple of half-centuries as well.