Hooda scored a paltry 53 runs at an average of 6.63 across 9 games in IPL 2023 thus far.
Apart from losing their last match to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at home, the LSG received a massive blow ahead of the contest as KL Rahul was ruled out due to the injury he sustained in that match. It remains to be seen whether he takes part in rest of the tournament.
Left-arm all-rounder Krunal Pandya was named the captain of the side in interim and he walked out for the toss along with CSK captain MS Dhoni.
Dhoni won the toss and opted to field first on a dry surface. After recovering from injury, Deepak Chahar returned to the playing XI, replacing Akash Singh.
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For LSG, Manan Vohra came in for KL Rahul and opened the innings, while Karan Sharma was brought in to replace Deepak Hooda. Hooda has been poor with the bat so far this season, as he scored a paltry 53 runs at an average of 6.63 across nine games.
However, keen eyed fans took notice of the coincidence that Hooda lost his place in the LSG XI as soon as Krunal Pandya became the captain. Some referenced the history between Krunal Pandya and Deepak Hooda and felt that it might have played a part in the decision.
For the unversed, Hooda had left the Baroda Ranji team in 2021 following a spat with Krunal. The former had then accused Krunal of bullying and misbehavior, when the unit had assembled for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Hooda moved to Rajasthan to play domestic cricket. However, in the IPL 2022 auction, both Hooda and Krunal were bought by Lucknow Super Giants and have since buried the hatchet.
However, here are some tweets of fans on this issue: