'He is now becoming someone you can rely on'- KL Rahul heaps praise on Deepak Hooda

Deepak Hooda has been in superb form of late. He has emerged as one of Lucknow's best batters in the Indian T20 league 2022 so far. During the first game against Gujarat, he scored a brilliant 55 off 41 balls, and steadied the ship to perfection. He showed a lot of maturity during that knock.

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He once again played the rescue act during Lucknow's third game against Hyderabad as he scored yet another half-century. He walked in to bat when his side were 27-3 in 4.5 overs. Hooda then put together a match-saving partnership with his skipper KL Rahul to enable Lucknow to 169 in the first innings.

It proved to be enough as the Lucknow-based franchise went on to win the game by 12 runs. Later, in the post match presentation, Rahul spoke really highly of Hooda. He stated that the 26-year-old has now become a reliable batter for them.

"I have been playing with Hooda for the last 3-4 seasons, he doesn't come out of the nets. Don't really need to do so much nets when you're batting so well, but he never comes out of the nets. He had to wait for his chance, he's using that, and now is becoming someone you can rely on, in the middle order. He soaked in the pressure today and took on the bowling. Really pleased with the way he's batting. Hopefully, he can grow and get better," said KL Rahul.

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However, the Lucknow skipper also stated that it wasn't ideal for them to lose early wickets. However, he hailed the lower middle-order for stepping up. Furthermore, Rahul also heaped praise on his bowlers for exhibiting a sensational performance in the second innings.

"Not ideal to lose three wickets early in the first four overs, but we need to give ourselves a little time since we bat deep and we have power at the death (overs). That's something we need to learn as a batting group -- how to play risk-free cricket while looking for fours. But with the ball, we've been brilliant in all three games. We don't chat so much in the middle. As opening batsmen, you give yourselves a couple of balls and if the wicket is good then both openers have to go. We have that extra batter with Jason coming in, so the plan is to put pressure on the opposition.

That's the body language we want to carry. To go out there and hit boundaries and sixes, but choose smart shots. If we lost wickets early, we need to quickly assess the situation and see what the target should be. Quinton and Lewis wanted to put pressure on Washington, but it didn't come off," he added.