In India's third T20 World Cup match against South Africa on Sunday, Deepak Hooda replaced Axar Patel in the Playing XI. India are currently the table-toppers of Group 2 and will want to retain their position in order to increase their chances of reaching the semifinals.
"We will bat. It's a good surface, we know what to expect and what to do on this pitch. We had a camp across at the WACA, which helped us get used to the bounce for both batters and bowlers. But this is an important game from where the tournament is, we just have to follow the routine and trust the process, just stay calm and execute the plans. One change - Axar misses out, and Hooda is in," skipper Rohit Sharma said during the toss.
Fans who were hoping to see Hooda in the Playing XI got excited and poured their love in form of social media posts.
Deepak Hooda's performance in T20Is
- Runs scored: 293
- Highest score: 104
- Batting Average: 41.85
- Wickets taken: 1
- Best Bowling in Innings (BBI): 1/3
South Africa Playing XI:
Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma, Rilee Rossouw, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Wayne Parnell, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje
India Playing XI:
Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
