All-rounder Deepak Hooda did not get to bat on his T20 International debut. Tough competition There is no shame in admitting that India has such a huge supply chain of cricketers that one has not only to be very talented but be very lucky to even get a single international cap. Something like this happened to Deepak Hooda when several players were injured one after the other or could not be part of the Sri Lanka series due to some reason or the other. In the absence of all of RavichandranAshwin, Washington Sundar, RavindraJadeja, Axar Patel and Jayant Yadav, Deepak Hooda was given a chance in the playing XI. No show with the bat However, he did not get to bat on debut. Rohit Sharma had earlier played a brilliant knock making 44 off just 32 delivery. Ishan Kishan smacked 89 off just 56 balls. ShreyasIyer accelerated later on and remained unbeaten on 55 off 28 balls. ShreyasIyer: Once I got going, I wanted to play my shots and keep the intent going, just wanted to play my shots. He (Ishan Kishan) wasn't able to time (in the middle overs), was losing patience. I just told him to take his time, look for twos and threes. Our plan was to hit the pockets, initially that's what we did, and things came out pretty well for us. Coming from Kolkata, this ground had different dimensions. I wasn't thinking a lot, thought 180 was a good total, was just looking to watch the ball closely and then played my shots. I had already put my hand up (for a bowl). Around the 16th over when he (Rohit) went it he had already told Bumrah these are the bowlers who need to bowl. I tried to bribe Bumrah but it didn't work for me. A dream come true nonetheless Iyer and Kishan were so good that Deepak Hooda did not get to bat. He did his bit with the ball in hand, bowling 3 overs and giving away 24 runs at an economy rate of 8.00. It was a decent performance for Hooda given that there was a lot of dew and it was not easy to grip the ball for a spinner. It may not have been a perfect beginning for the international career of Deepak Hooda but it would have certainly been a dream come true to get his India cap in a country where more than a billion people follow cricket.
