Virat Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma feels Rohit Sharma didn’t have enough faith in the bowling abilities of Deepak Hooda as the off-spinner didn’t get to bowl in the Super Four contest against Pakistan on Sunday.
Hooda was drafted in the final XI after Ravindra Jadeja was ruled out of the tournament with a knee injury. The all-rounder was expected to be the sixth bowling option for Rohit Sharma but the Indian captain didn’t throw him the ball.
In fact, Rajkumar Sharma feels Hooda could have bowled when Mohammad Nawaz was batting as the off-spinner would have taken the ball away from the left-hander.
Rajkumar Sharma said on India News Sports, “Deepak Hooda was added to the side as he could be a sixth bowling option. He should have been given a couple of overs when Mohammad Nawaz was batting well.
“This indicates that the captain doesn’t have enough faith in him as a bowler, or maybe he didn’t think that Hooda could have been used against a left-hander. He would have been a useful option as he has bowled quite a lot in T20 cricket.”
Meanwhile, India decided to back two leg-spinners in Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravi Bishnoi against Pakistan. Sharma reckons it is a big fault of the selectors that they don’t have an extra pacer and questioned team management’s decision to leave out Ravichandran Ashwin against Pakistan.
“India was forced to go with this lineup against Pakistan as India didn’t have a replacement for a pacer. It is a big fault of the team management and the selectors that they didn’t add an extra fast bowler to the squad. We had Ravichandran Ashwin but still went ahead with two leg spinners.”
India was not at their best with the ball against Pakistan as their pack leader Bhuvneshwar Kumar was taken for 19 runs in the penultimate over.
The Men in Blue will look to bounce back stronger against Sri Lanka on Wednesday.
