Baroda cricketer Deepak Hooda accuses Krunal Pandya of abusing him; withdraws his name from Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

India’s domestic cricket season is set to finally commence on January 10 with the T20 tournament, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. As many as 38 teams will take part in the tournament with Baroda being one of the prominent teams over the years to participate. Baroda is in Elite Group C and will be facing Uttarakhand in their opening game on Sunday. However, the team is involved in a controversy with less than 24 hours to go for their first match of the season.

Deepak Hooda, one of the top players in the team, has withdrawn his name from the entire tournament at the last moment after allegedly having a heated argument with the skipper Krunal Pandya. Notably, Hooda was named the vice-captain of the team when the Baroda Cricket Association (BCA) had announced the 22-member squad last week.

It has been understood that Krunal Pandya and Deepak Hooda got involved in a heated argument while practicing at the Reliance Stadium in Vadodara ahead of their game on Sunday. Hooda has claimed in a mail written to the BCA that Krunal abused him as well and also wrote in it that he will not be playing with the team in the upcoming T20 tournament.

The news has been reported by local news channel TV9 Gujarati as well. Meanwhile, it has also been understood that Krunal Pandya has threatened Hooda during the argument. Reportedly, Hooda was also under a lot of mental pressure. Baroda has announced a trimmed 17-man squad for Sunday’s game and Deepak Hooda is not a part of it.

This comes as a huge blow for Baroda as the said cricketer is very much experienced having played in 46 FC, 68 List A and 123 T20 matches so far in his career. With no Yusuf Pathan also in the squad, an exclusion of yet another experienced player has put the Baroda team in the doldrums just before the start of the domestic season.

In the 2020 edition of T20 extravaganza, he played for the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in seven matches notching up an unbeaten 62 in the final league game for the team. The aforementioned incident is surprising for many as Deepak Hooda and Krunal Pandya were told to be very good team-mates and the main reason for their argument is yet not known.

Krunal Pandya was involved in controversy recently

Meanwhile, the Mumbai Indians all-rounder and Baroda skipper Krunal Pandya was involved in controversy recently as well. He was detained at the Mumbai airport while returning from UAE after the IPL 2020 for over suspicion of being in possession of undisclosed gold and valuables. Reports stated that the cricketer arrived in India with valuables worth almost INR 1 crore, which was much above the permissible limits as per Indian laws.

Krunal Pandya was also questioned for more than six hours and luxury watches were seized as well. The cricketer, however, had admitted to being unaware of the rules and also issued an apology to the Customs official while also agreeing to pay the penalty.

Meanwhile, after the latest controversy where he has been accused of abusing his fellow team-mate, it remains to be seen if BCA takes any action.