India batter Deepak Hooda turned out in pacer Prasidh Krishna’s No. 24 jersey in the second ODI against West Indies on Sunday (July 24). After Krishna was dropped from the playing XI for the second game of the series in place of debutant Avesh Khan, Hooda took his jersey while hiding the name for a while with the help of a tape. There was no official confirmation on why the youngster is not wearing his own jersey.
Social media users also recalled that previously Krunal Pandya had worn the same number jersey for Team India. Hooda and Krunal have a fiery relationship with each other after an incident in the Baroda state team camp during the 2021 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. With Hooda taking over Krunal’s jersey, netizens gave some hilarious reactions.
Hooda and Krunal Pandya have now become teammates at the Lucknow Super Giants team since IPL 2022. The two share cordial relations while playing for KL Rahul-led LSG.
Here are some of the reactions about Deepak Hooda wearing No. 24 jersey…
Krunal Pandya wore 24 for India and now Hooda is also wearing 24.
Pure bond pic.twitter.com/wNSTlGUkNG
— Chutesuwar_Pujari (@PujaraDolan) July 24, 2022
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Ganguly wearing the jersey of Raina.
Hooda wearing the jersey of Prasidh. pic.twitter.com/Y3rCUeCYbn
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) July 24, 2022
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Just noticed Hooda is wearing jersey no 24 of Prasidh Krishna and for a moment I thought he has changed his jersey number which was previously alloted to his best friend Krunal Pandya who also used to wear no. 24 in some games for India.
— Gagan Thakur (@gagan_gt) July 24, 2022
Hooda was impressive with the ball in the West Indies innings, claiming 1/42 in 9 which included the wicket of in-form opener Kyle Mayers. With the bat, Hooda scored 33 off 36 balls putting on 51 runs for the fifth wicket with Axar Patel, who smashed a match-winning 64 not out off 35 balls.
“I feel it was a great a team performance. We made mistakes, we took the challenge and we had self-belief. I was also surprised. Hats off to our middle order. All the batters were amazing, Axar and Avesh (Khan), who got those boundaries, were amazing. Our domestic and IPL cricket keeps us ready as we play in front of big crowds. As Axar said, he’s done it multiple times in IPL. That brings a big stage,” captain Shikhar Dhawan said after the win.
