India are leading the points table in the Group 2 of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 after a big win over Netherlands and a thrilling victory against arch-rivals Pakistan in their first game. India’s net run-rate (NRR) is positive 1.425 which is the second best in their group. Even though India are on a winning run, South Africa is their next challenge in the tournament and it will not be an easy one for Rohit Sharma’s side. There are some areas they need to work on and one big factor which could prove to be a vital one in the later stages of the event is the form of KL Rahul.

Rahul has scored after missing out on international cricket due to injury, KL has played 12 T20Is in which he has scored 319 runs at an average of 29 and strike rate of 124. There are four fifties in this. On the other hand, Deepak Hooda has also played 12 games in his T20I career so far where he batted in nine of those scoring 293 runs with the highest score of 104. He has an average of 41.85 and a strike rate of 155.85. His century against Ireland came when he opened the batting. Deepak’s incredible stats prove that he can be a big threat to KL Rahul. However, it is very unlikely that KL will be replaced by Deepak in the game against South Africa but maybe the Indian team mangement could look at Hooda in the later stage of the event.

India’s Predicted Playing XI: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammad Shami.

Full Squad India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammad Shami. Standby Players: Mohammed Siraj, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, Shardul Thakur.

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