IPL 2023: Split in Gautam Gambhir’s team itself? All is not well in LSG amid fight with Virat Kohli

Gautam Gambhir’s team is currently not in the news for good reasons.Image Credit source: BCCI

New Delhi: In IPL 2023, the most talked about fight is between Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir. After the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Supergiants, the battle of the two Indian giants brought back memories of 10 years when the two first fought. Everyone’s attention is on this, but in the meantime Gambhir’s own team, Lucknow Super Giants, seems to be divided into two pieces behind the scenes. This fight is between Krunal Pandya and Deepak Hooda.

In the match against Chennai Super Kings, all-rounder Krunal Pandya was given the command of Lucknow in place of injured captain KL Rahul. In his very first match as captain, Krunal Pandya made a decision that fueled speculation about rekindling his fight with Deepak Hooda.

Hooda out as soon as he became captain

In fact, in his very first match as captain, Krunal Pandya dropped all-rounder Deepak Hooda from the playing XI. Earlier, Deepak Hooda played every match for Lucknow this season. However, his performance in any of the previous matches was not as good as expected and in 9 matches, only 53 runs could come out of his bat.

Despite this, as long as Rahul was the captain, he was a part of the team. Now Hooda had to sit out in the first match as soon as Krunal took over the reins. Now it is difficult to say whether it is a coincidence or really the old fight is the reason behind it, but questions are being raised on this coincidence. Users on social media also pointed this out.

I thought #LSG might give Deepak Hooda another go in a position he is probably most comfortable in currently. At 6 pm Stoinis and Pooran.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 3, 2023

Krunal Pandya captains LSG for the 1st time ever and Deepak Hooda is out of the playing XI immediately

Coincidence?#IPL #LSGvCSK

— Mohit Shah (@mohit_shah17) May 3, 2023

Deepak Hooda is dropped just after Krunal Pandya becomes the captain.

— Div 🦁| Dube Stan (@div_yumm) May 3, 2023

What is the story of Hooda-Pandya clash?

The confrontation between Deepak Hooda and Krunal Pandya took place two years ago in 2021. At that time both used to play for Baroda in domestic cricket. Pandya was the captain of the team. The team was preparing for the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy but during that time there was an argument between the two in the camp. Hooda accused Pandya of abusing and humiliating him. After this, Hooda had left Baroda’s camp midway and then he joined Rajasthan after changing the team.