India head coach Gautam Gambhir admitted that leaving out Sanju Samson, who earned Player of the Tournament honours during India’s victorious home T20 World Cup campaign, during the tour of England was 'probably the toughest decision' of his coaching stint.

Following a string of poor performances, Samson made way for rising talent Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who made his highly anticipated international debut during the T20 series in England. However, India restored their preferred opening pairing of Abhishek Sharma and Samson for the home series against Afghanistan.