Deepak Hooda didn't feature in India's playing XI in the first T20I against West Indies.
According to Srikkanth, the visitors should have gone ahead with Deepak Hooda over Shreyas Iyer in the playing XI. He pointed out that Hooda has been exceptional in his recent outings for India in both the white-ball formats.
WATCH – Suryakumar Yadav, Dinesh Karthik steal the show with outrageous strokes in 1st T20I
“Where is Hooda? He did well in T20Is, He did well in ODIs as well. He is the guy who should be there. In T20 cricket you need to understand, that you need all-rounders. Batting all-rounders, bowling all-rounders, so more the all-rounders better for you," Srikkanth said during his conversation with Fan Code.
Ex-India spinner Pragyan Ojha, who was part of the same panel, defended the selection by saying that head coach Rahul Dravid believes in backing the players who performed first.
“Rahul bhai believes that if a player performed for you first then play him and back him. Then you go ahead with the other options,” said Ojha.
However, the logic didn’t go down well with Srikkanth, who stopped Ojha midway and said: “Rahul Dravid ka soch humko nahi chahiye. Aapka soch chahiye. Abhi chahiye. Abhi do.”
Ojha smiled and endorsed Srikkanth's views, saying: “Hooda toh hona chaiye. Obviously Hooda.”
“Bas. Khatam,” replied Kris Srikkanth.
Batting at No. 3, Shreyas Iyer was dismissed for a four-ball duck in the first T20I. However, India rode on skipper Rohit Sharma’s 44-ball 64 and Dinesh Karthik’s whirlwind 19-ball 41* to pile up 190/6 on the board.
Defending the total, Indian bowlers displayed a collective brilliance to restrict the hosts to a paltry 122/8. While R Ashwin, (2-22), Arshdeep Singh (2-24) and Ravi Bishnoi (2-26) claimed two scalps each, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1-11) and Ravindra Jadeja (1-26) chipped in with wicket apiece.
With this victory, the Rohit Sharma-led side took a 1-0 lead in the five-match T20I series. The second T20I will be played in St Kitts on Monday (August 1).
(With HT inputs)