Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said that the Indian cricket team missed an opportunity by not allowing wicket-keeper batsman Sanju Samson to play in front of his home crowd.
India lost to the West Indies in the second T20I of the three-match series on Sunday at Thiruvananthapuram.
"Most of us hoped the Indian team would have made the gesture of resting a player to allow @IamSanjuSamson to play in front of his home crowd. We would have inspired him to great feats of derring-do," Tharoor tweeted.
Samson had come out to a rousing reception and the crowd was seen ecstatic as he came out to train with the Indian lineup on Sunday. Coach Ravi Shastri was also seen in a jovial mood with Samson.
The 25-year-old Samson was included in the Indian lineup as a replacement for the injured Shikhar Dhawan.
The selectors had announced the Indian ODI and T20I squad for series against the Windies on November 21 and Samson was not a part of the original squad.
Samson's exclusion from the squad did not go down well with many supporters as they criticised the selectors for not giving him a chance.
Samson was a part of the T20I squad for the recently concluded series against Bangladesh, but he was not given a chance in the playing XI as Rishabh Pant was preferred over him.
Currently, the series between India and West Indies is levelled at 1-1. Both sides will next lock horns with each other on December 11 at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
India's squad for the third T20Is: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sanju Samson (wk).
(With ANI inputs)
