Ashish Nehra reveals why Sanju Samson lost his place to Deepak Hooda

Deepak Hooda played a pivotal inning while staying at helm to drive India towards victory against Ireland in the 1st T20I.

Deepak Hooda played brilliant knocks for Lucknow Super Giants in IPL season 2022. He scored a total of 451 runs in 15 innings with a strike rate of 136.67. He played a crucial role for LSG in IPL season 2022. After having a great IPL season he got selected for India versus South Africa T20I series but, unfortunately, he didn’t get a chance in playing XI. He sat consecutively on the bench for all the 5 T-20i matches against South Africa. Subsequently, BCCI announced India’s squad against Ireland, and again they selected Deepak Hooda in the squad against Ireland for two T-20i matches. The match was held on 26th June 2022 at Malahide.

Deepak Hooda got a chance in playing XI and he grabbed the opportunity. He scored 47 runs not out of 26 deliveries by hitting 6 fours and 2 sixes with a strike rate of 162.07. on the other side, After the playing XI announcement for the first T20I match against Ireland team India took Deepak Hooda ahead of Sanju Samson the netizens got angry on social as Sanju Samson had also an impressive IPL 2022 season. He scored 458 runs in 17 matches. The RR’s skipper and wicket-keeper batsman Sanju Samson was not given chance in playing XI against Ireland in the first T20I match the fans were in absolute shock after they saw the playing XI of India against Ireland and showed their anger on social media.

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The former Indian cricketer Ashish Nehra explains in an interview why team India chose Deepak Hooda ahead of Sanju Samson. In a Sony Liv’s pre-match show Extra Innings he said, “No, it’s not a tough call at all. Sanju Samson and Rahul Tripathi have come in place of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant. Deepak Hooda was already in the squad and even Venkatesh Iyer didn’t play a match against South Africa. And the kind of performance, Deepak Hooda did in IPL as he is one of those players who played for Rajasthan in Ranji Trophy, the whole season he scored runs, then in the IPL also. He started the tournament, playing at 5 or 6 (for LSG) and then he was promoted to number three and there also he did well. So his confidence must be high.”

Further he added, “And it is good to see that he was in the squad before Samson arrived and he was backed before him. He is a sincere player and we know there are so many T20 games coming. And as we saw the squad was same in all five games against South Africa, he would hope that he is persisted with.”