Krishnamachari Srikkanth, who used to be captain of India and chair of the selection committee, was furious about how the team was chosen for the first T20I match of a five-game series against West Indies at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba, Trinidad. Srikkanth thought that India should have put Deepak Hooda in the playing XI instead of Shreyas Iyer. When former India cricketer Pragyan Ojha defended the choice, Srikkanth came up with a bold Rahul Dravid answer.
Rohit Sharma, the team's captain, and seven other players were all back in the T20I lineup after being rested for the three-match ODI series, which Shikhar Dhawan's team won 3-0.
After losing the toss, Rohit announced that Iyer would bat at No.3 for India as against Hooda, who Srikkanthpointed out, during his conversation with Fan Code, has been exceptional in his last few appearances in the both the white-ball formats for India.
“Where is Hooda? He did well in T20Is, He did well in ODIs as well. He is the guy who should be there. In T20 cricket you need to understand, that you need all-rounders. Batting all-rounders, bowling all-rounders, so more the all-rounders better for you," the India great had said before Ojha, who was part of the same panel, walked in to defend Dravid's selection process
“Rahul bhai believes that if a player performed for you first then play him and back him. Then you go ahead with the other options,” said Ojha.
Srikkanth immediately stopped him midway through his explanation to say, “Rahul Dravid ka soch humkonehi chaiye. Aapka soch chaiye. Abhi chaiye. Abhi do.”Ojha smiled and sided with Srikkanth's choice saying, “Hooda toh hona chaiye. Obviously Hooda.” “Bas. Khatam,” replied the veteran India cricketer.
Iyer eventually suffered a four-ball duck in the match after India were put to bat first.