‘Making room for Mumbai players’ – Fans Lash Out At Rohit Sharma As Shreyas Iyer Replaces Injured Deepak Hooda For The T20 Series Against South Africa

After having a dismal show in the Asia Cup 2022, India faced Australia in a three-match T20I series at home. However, they managed to win the series at a margin of 2-1 over the current World Champions of this shortest format of the game. Ahead of the 20-20 World Cup in Australia, this win can boost India. Now, they are going to play another three-match T20I series at home against South Africa.

This series will kick off at Thiruvananthapuram on 28 September 2022. These upcoming three matches will be another good test for the Men in Blue ahead of the mega event. But, on the eve of the series decider against the Aussies in Hyderabad, the Indian Board confirmed that Hooda did not get a game time as he has been dealing with a back injury.

Shreyas Iyer is going to replace Deepak Hooda for the T20I series against South Africa

Now, on 26 September 2022, the Indian Board confirmed that Hooda will also miss the upcoming three-match series against the Proteas. Hence, it was a major blow for the batter ahead of the World Cup. Initially, selectors went with him for the final squad of India for the upcoming World Cup. Then, he did not get any chance against Australia. Now, he is ruled out of the series against Proteas.

Shreyas Iyer will replace him in the series. Even, India announced that Shahbaz Ahmed will replace Hardik Pandya while Umesh Yadav will replace Mohammed Shami. But, fans did not like the exclusion of Hooda ahead of the World Cup. They found it suspicious as he got injured even after not playing in the series recently. Some fans also blamed skipper Rohit Sharma and the Indian team management for excluding him intentionally with an excuse of injury. People also claimed that now he will be excluded from the World Cup squad also.

Here is how fans have reacted to the sudden exclusion of Deepak Hooda from team India:

Making room for #ShreyasIyer

— menda (@vj_corp) September 26, 2022

Log khel kam injured jyada hue ja rahe hain… On the field injury is acceptable but off the field baat samjh hi nahi aati….

— ऋतेश पाण्डेय | Ritesh Pandey (@itsiritesh) September 27, 2022

Bina khele kaise injury ho rahi hai aaj kal …khela kuch aur hi hai

— Notakhan (@notakhan) September 27, 2022

They are getting injured without playing. Is it really any injury or an excuse to axe them from the squad?

— VG (@vishaalofficial) September 26, 2022

I thought only if you play in XI u get injured…how come bench players are getting injured 🤔

— Krishmv (@krishmv2u) September 27, 2022

https://twitter.com/cryptoroom5/status/1574415724306911232

Australia series main bahar baitha hi toh tha…. Practice karte karte injured ho gya?

— ✨Prakrati✨Live n Let Live ✨❤️ (@PrakratiKunder) September 26, 2022

Back injury ..while sitting in a hotel room …

— शौर्य_b (@b_shorya) September 26, 2022