KL Rahul In, Sanju Samson Out In India's ODI World Cup Squad: Sources

Sanju Samson, Tilak Varma and Prasidh Krishna were not retained in the Indian squad for the ODI World Cup 2023.

India's ODI World Cup 2023 team is expected to be announced today. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selection committee chief Ajit Agarkar flew to Sri Lanka to hold a discussion with the team management and finalise the squad, sources have told NDTV. There are no big surprises from the Asia Cup 2023 squad that the BCCI had recently picked. With the ODI World Cup squad to be a 15-member roster, there was no place for wicket-keeper batter Sanju Samson while the fit-again KL Rahul was picked.

When Agarkar announced the Indian squad for the Asia Cup, he suggested that the ODI World Cup roster would be on similar lines. The Asia Cup squad, however, was a 17-member unit, with Samson being included as a backup for Rahul. Since the World Cup squad is to contain only 15 players, 2 members from the main squad had to be removed.

It has been learned that the two members who would be excluded from the roster are Tilak Varma and Prasidh Krishna. While Varma was handed his maiden ODI call-up for the Asia Cup, Krishan was included in the roster after a long injury layoff. Among the returning players, all three of Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Iyer, and KL Rahul have earned a spot in India's squad for the World Cup.

Among the biggest absentees, Yuzvendra Chahal, who wasn't picked in the Indian squad for the Asia Cup too, found no place in the World Cup squad either. Suryakumar Yadav, despite his struggles in the 50-over format, retains his spot in the squad.