'I would have played Deepak Hooda' - RP Singh not impressed with Shreyas Iyer's selection for 3rd England T20I

India sealed yet another T20I series under Rohit Sharma after beating England comprehensively in the second T20I at Edgbaston. The win meant that India had the liberty to make changes to their playing XI in the third T20I, which serves as a dead ringer. India made a host of changes, and the absence of in-form Deepak Hooda has agitated former Indian pacer RP Singh.

Deepak Hooda featured for the side in the series opener at Southampton and made a handy contribution to the team’s total. But the middle-order batter was dropped in favor of the returning Virat Kohli in the second T20I. With the series already in the bag, Hooda could’ve made a return to the side, but the Indian team went with Shreyas Iyer instead, which has infuriated a few experts and former cricketers.

Notably, Iyer had a miserable series against South Africa last month following a decent IPL 2022. His selection ahead of Hooda is beyond the understanding of RP Singh, who has batted in favor of playing in-form players.

“You must play someone who is in form, Deepak Hooda was in form as he has scored so many runs. But by playing Iyer, you are trying to get him back in his form which is beyond my understanding. If I was the captain, I would have played Deepak Hooda,” said RP to Cricbuzz’s Youtube channel.

‘Their thought process is questionable’ – Parthiv Patel is bemused by India’s team selection process

The former Indian pacer found support from Parthiv Patel, who questioned the selection criteria for the T20I team. He stated that if IPL performances are behind the selection of Dinesh Karthik and Iyer in the Indian team, then surely Mohammad Shami also deserves to be in the team on the back of his triumphant IPL 2022, where he bagged 20 wickets and was impressive with his bowling in the powerplay.

“I am really surprised. For some time this Indian team management under Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma had shown some consistency. But that wasn’t on display here today. It is a different thought process, and I am a little surprised. Maybe, he (Shreyas) got the opportunity because he had done well before IPL. But people can’t forget that Shami performed exceedingly well in IPL too then why was he not picked? Their thought process is questionable,” Patel told Cricbuzz.