Former India cricketer Irfan Pathan has expressed his disappointment at Team India's decision to drop Deepak Hooda in the second T20I against England at Edgbaston on Saturday (July 9).
The Rohit Sharma-led side made a total of four changes in the playing XI for the second T20I, leaving out Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Axar Patel and Arshdeep Singh, while Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja and star pacer Jasprit Bumrah returned to the team after missing out the series opener.
While it was confirmed that Kohli would return to the side in the second T20I, not many could have expected that it would be Deepak Hooda making way for the former skipper in the team.
The star all-rounder has been in terrific form lately and has grabbed the opportunity, in whatever way it has been offered, with both hands. In the two-match T20I series against Ireland, Hooda slammed a gorgeous 47 in the first T20, followed by an impressive century in the 2nd T20, which was his first in international cricket.
The Baroda-cricketer continued his red-hot form in England as he played a sensational knock of 17-ball 33 in the first T20I and gave the much-needed boost to the ‘Men in Blue’. Following back-to-back heroics with the bat of late, it was pretty perplexing to see Hooda being left out of the team.
The former Indian all-rounder took to Twitter to express his dissatisfaction with India's decision to leave out Hooda and said that the all-rounder was very unfortunate to miss out despite being in red-hot form.
"Very unfortunate for Deepak Hooda to miss out in this red hot form," read Pathan's post on Twitter
As long as the match is concerned, Team India, after putting in to bat first, got off to a flying start, with Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant registering a 49-run stand for the first wicket. The duo went bonkers with the bat but failed to convert it to big individual scores.
While Sharma whacked 31 runs off 20 deliveries braided with three boundaries and two sixes, wicketkeeper-batter Pant slammed a 15-ball 26. Thanks to late flourishes from Jadeja, who smacked 29-ball 46 and remained not out, India posted a decent total of 170/8 off 20 overs.
India’s target turned out to be sufficient as England were bundled out for a paltry total of 121.