Deepak Hooda's sensational rise to Indian cricket has been a great story for cricket fans. The 27-year-old was selected for the Indian side after an eye-catching performance in the Indian T20 League. After a poor Asia Cup 2022 however, Hooda’s career seems to have taken a massive hit after he was also excluded from the squad due to an injury.
The Rohtak-born all-rounder has not travelled to Thiruvananthapuram, where the first match of the three-match T20I series between India and South Africa will be played.
Just in: Deepak Hooda is ruled out of the #INDvSA T20I series due to a back injury pic.twitter.com/pLqk6vxxcn
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) September 26, 2022
Mohammad Shami who is also recovering after getting infected by COVID has been ruled out of the series. Meanwhile, Shreyas Iyer and Shahbaz Ahmed have been named as the two replacements for the series.
The news of Iyer’s inclusion particularly has irked many cricket fans who insist that there is a Mumbai lobby working behind the inclusion of the right-hand batter.
Making room for #ShreyasIyer
— menda (@vj_corp) September 26, 2022
He will be out from WC too. Mumbai lobby is too strong. #Iyer https://t.co/PqmUvtyQ53
— Mohan Raswant (@mohanraswant22) September 26, 2022
Interesting how players get injured while carrying drinks and then get replaced... #INDvsSA #INDvSA
— Jaideep Ghosh (@jd0893) September 27, 2022
This entire mohd shami & Deepak Hooda thing looks so suspicious Man!
— Detective Arjun Singh (@ArjunSingh098) September 28, 2022
In current times, anyone having covid is recovering in 4-5 days Max, even Dravid in Asia cup took only 5 days to get back. & it's been 15+ days to shami
Also, hooda injury how? He isn't even playing #Shami
Fans on Twitter were shocked at the fact that Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson were not included despite performing better than 27-year-old. Iyer has recently been found out by bowlers as many have exploited his short ball problem.
Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh have been sent to the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore for fitness checkups.
Ajay Jadeja slams Indian Cricket Board
Former India batter Ajay Jadeja has slammed the Indian Cricket Board for this and thinks it does not make sense. Talking to Cricbuzz, Jadeja said, “If the guys are being sent to Bangalore, I don’t know whether there is some religious ritual going on or some other kind of ritual, because otherwise it just doesn’t make sense. The best equipment, the best people, the best technology should be with the Indian team.”
India is scheduled to play a three-match T20I series and three-match ODI series against South Africa in India. The first match of the tour starts on 28th September 2022 in Thiruvananthapuram