New Delhi: Congress veteran Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday backed his fellow MP and Rajya Sabha leader Harbhajan Singh after he heaped praise on Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson.
Taking to his official X account, Mr Singh said that there shouldn't be any debate about wicket-keeper batsman in India's squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup and vouched for Mr Samson.
The cricketer-turned-politician also said that Mr Samson should be groomed as the next T20 captain for India after Rohit Sharma. Mr Singh also praised Yashasvi Jaiswal, who scored a hundred as Rajasthan Royals defeated Mumbai Indians by nine wickets in their IPL 2024 match on Monday.
Responding to Mr Singh's post, Mr Tharoor said that he has been arguing for years that Sanju Samson has not had the selectorial breaks he deserved.
"Now he is the leading keeper-batsman in the IPL but is still not discussed when the team is debated. Justice for Sanju," the Congress MP said.
This was not the first time when Mr Tharoor has backed the wicket-keeper batter's selection in the Indian team, who has represented the country in 25 T20I and 16 One Day International (ODI) matches.
Earlier last year, Mr Tharoor had questioned the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for not selecting Sanju Samson for the T20I series against Australia.
He even said that Mr Samson shouldn't just have been picked but also made the captain of the team in the absence of senior players like Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul, etc. Suryakumar Yadav was named the captain of the Indian team in that series, which took place days after India lost the final of the ODI World Cup 2023.
"This is truly inexplicable. Sanju Samson should have not just been selected, he should have led the side in the absence of all the seniors. His captaincy experience with Kerala and Rajasthan Royals is more current than SKY's (Surya Kumar Yadav). Our selectors need to explain themselves to the cricket-loving public," Mr Tharoor had said.
Shashi Tharoor is currently in the electoral fray against BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar from Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
All 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala will vote in a single phase on April 26 and the votes will be counted on June 4.