An issue with the T-shirt size and the delay in the arrival of a new one resulted in Suryakumar Yadav taking the field in the first ODI against West Indies wearing Sanju Samson’s jersey in Barbados on Thursday.
The Indian Express understands that one the eve of the game, Yadav informed the team management about the size issue with his jersey. Though he managed to do a photo shoot with it, he had requested a change in his jersey size.
The match day jersey given to Yadav turned out to be of ‘medium’ size instead of ‘large’.
As a result the Mumbai batsman Yadav requested Samson to hand over his jersey as he wasn’t playing the game. The Indian team had picked Ishan Kishan over Samson for the first ODI which India won by five wickets.
As per the rule, players cannot tape the names printed behind their jersey so Yadav had no choice other than to wear the T-shirt with Samson’s name at the back.
It is learnt that the new jersey will be made available to Yadav only after the second ODI on Saturday.
“There was some size issue with his jersey. We were told about it two days before the game. He will be receiving his new jersey after the second ODI as the BCCI has shipped it with Indian team players selected for the T20 series. Till then he will be wearing his team mate jersey while playing,” a BCCI source said.
It is learnt few other players had size issues and they too will be getting replacements soon. Even during the recently concluded Duleep Trophy in Bengaluru, few of the players had issues with their t-shirt size and wore borrowed ones from their teammates.
The Indian team has a new kit sponsor in form of Adidas from this season onwards while Dream 11 recently won Indian team lead sponsor rights.
