‘Where is Hooda?’ – Krishnamachari Srikkanth furious over exclusion of Deepak Hooda for the first T20I against West Indies

Former India great Krishnamachari Sikkanth got furious over the exclusion of Deepak Hooda from the first T20I against the West Indies. Srikkanth said to Fancode that Hooda must have been in place of Iyer. The all-rounder was exceptional in the Ireland T20Is. Hooda even managed to score a century in a recent game against Ireland.

However, he was left out of the playing eleven for the first T20I against West Indies. “Where is Hooda? He did well in T20Is, He did well in ODIs as well. He is the guy who should be there. In T20 cricket you need to understand, that you need all-rounders. Batting all-rounders, bowling all-rounders, so more the all-rounders better for you," Former India batter questioned. 

Pragyan Ojha, who was with him, had to defend Dravid’s selection. He said to Srikkanth that Dravid plays and backs the one who played first. But then Srikkanth commented in Hindi. “Rahul Dravid ka soch humko nehi chaiye. Aapka soch chaiye. Abhi chaiye. Abhi do,” Srikkanth commented.

Pragyan Ojha replied that he would prefer Deepak Hooda ahead of Shreyas Iyer too. And the former great concluded with “Bas. Khatam,”. Shreyas Iyer has been struggling with short balls lately. The batter, however, managed to score the fifties in the ODI series. 

India shines in the first T20I

Rohit Sharma lost the toss and the team was forced to bat first. To everyone’s surprise, Suryakumar Yadav opened the innings alongside Rohit Sharma. However, the former perished for a brief 24. Rohit Sharma sustained and throttled the innings further. With enough fuel to carry on, Rohit also perished for a great 64. Team India kept losing wickets until Dinesh Karthik took guards.

The runs skyrocketed after his arrival. His blitzkrieg innings consisted of 4 fours and 2 sixes. He scored 41 and remained unbeaten off just 19 balls. Ravichandran Ashwin backed him with a solid 13 runs off 10 balls. The two helped India reach 190 runs in the innings. 

West Indies, on the other hand, started well until Arshdeep Singh managed to claim the first scalp. Kyle Mayers was the first victim and the wickets started tumbling from there on. No one managed to score more than 20 runs for the Caribbean. They fell short by 68 runs in the end.