At one time, which was called the alternative to Virat Kohli: now in the discussion for a bad record in IPL

Delhi: One of the biggest reasons for the poor record of Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2025 is his middle order. That is why if the team dropped Deepak Hooda and Sam Curren out of the Guwahati match team against Rajasthan Royals, then no one was surprised. Deepak Hooda scored 3 runs against Mumbai Indians and 4 against RCB out of the first two matches of this season. The truth is that this season is one of the worst performance in the ‘batsman’, which played at least 2 innings, till the April 1 matches in this season. None of those who have played badly with them have neither a reputation like Deepak Hooda nor a previous record.

Now the matter has gone back from this season too. At one time, the same Deepak Hooda was counting the claimant of Virat Kohli’s place in Team India. Today, seeing the total records, Deepak Hooda is considering Hooda as a single batsman of the IPL till date. How much power is there in this statement, let’s know:

Batting record by 1 April 2025:

• 1472 runs in 98 innings of 120 matches at 17.95 average and 128+ strike rate. This is one of the worst average of a pure batsman.
• Only Sunil Naren’s average record in the records of 98 or more innings in the IPL is bad (1578 runs at 17.15 average in 112 innings) in the records of the batsman who played 98 or more innings, while Deepak also got the benefit of not being dismissed in 16 innings.
• If you make the count of the match the basis, then Deepak Hooda is at number 12 and the 11 batsmen who scored less than them are all pure bowlers.
• Deepak Hooda has the most embarrassing batting record of the 2023 season when in a season (at least 10 innings) set a record of the lowest run. This season scored just 84 runs in 12 innings of 12 matches at 7.64 average.
• In a season, on the same basis, 2 of the first 3 worst performances in the list of the worst records are Deepak Hooda’s names. He scored 144 runs in 15 innings of 17 matches in the 2016 season at 10.29 average.

IPL contract met despite poor form

The interesting thing is that even the batsman with such a bad record has been successful in taking contracts in the IPL continuously. In 2014, Rajasthan Royals gave the contract for the first time for Rs 40 lakh. However, for the first time, he scored 54 runs in the 2015 season and 25 balls in his second innings, which achieved the target of 185 runs against Delhi. This reputation gave a contract of Rs 4.20 crore from Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2016 and he also contributed with the bat in the title victory of that season.

Stayed with Sunrisers till 2019 and then after playing for two seasons Kings XI Punjab and LSG, he got a contract of Rs 1.70 crore from Chennai for 2025 seasons.

A player, who was in discussion as an alternative to Virat Kohli in Team India, is now in discussion for his bad record.

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