India VS New Zealand: Deepak Hooda is still popular with Indian selectors

The choices were between incumbent Shreyas Iyer or the proverbial new kid on the block in Deepak Hooda. In the end, the selectors went with Deepak Hooda, much to the surprise of many. 

Many rightfully felt that Shreyas Iyer’s recent struggles with short bowling led the team to select Deepak Hooda. Others pointed out the fact that Deepak Hooda was also a useful off-spin option. 

However, it is safe to say that the selection didn’t quite pan out as planned. And this is mainly because the Indian selectors and team management had seemingly different visions for Deepak Hooda. 

While the selectors saw Deepak Hooda as a batsman who could float up or down the order and bowl a bit of helpful off-spin, skipper Rohit Sharma saw him as a batsman and little else. 

This was evidenced by the fact that he never bowled whenever Deepak Hooda played under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy.

Deepak Hooda was not handed the ball during India’s Super six Asia Cup encounter against Pakistan, even though Pakistan have several left-handers in their batting line-up. 

This was true even for the one game he played in the World Cup against South Africa, where he could not make a mark with the bat and was not thrown the ball. 

It’s an unusual situation for a player to find themselves in – after all, why pick a player as a bowling option when you’re not going to make him bowl at all? 

It also made the benching of Shreyas Iyer make even less sense since if you wanted a player who could bat, then the Mumbai batsman fit the bill. 

However, one thing is worth noting Hooda did bowl for India in a different format – the ODIs against Zimbabwe. 

And, in many ways, his part-time off-spin bowling might be more useful in the middle overs of one-day games rather than in T20I cricket. 

So, therefore, the team has stuck with him for now. But that’s not the only reason he’s been retained in the side for the New Zealand series. 

The simple fact is that, for all the debates over his place, he’s barely been allowed to play in recent times. 

Thanks to Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, and even Dinesh Karthik, Hooda has yet to get a significant amount of game time. 

Yes, one can say that in the limited games he’s gotten, he’s not exactly set the stage on fire. But it makes more sense to judge a player once he’s been given a sustained run in the side. 

As of now, Hooda has yet to get that sustained run with the team. And that, perhaps more so than anything else, is why he is still with the team. 

Only if he doesn’t make the most of a sustained opportunity will he find himself at the back of the pecking order.