Rohit Sharma explains why Deepak Hooda didn't bowl against Sri Lanka after questions over his selection

India's Asia Cup 2022 campaign has been derailed after back-to-back losses at the hands of Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the Super Four stage of the tournament. After losing a last-over thriller against Pakistan on Sunday, India suffered a disappointing six-wicket defeat against Sri Lanka on Tuesday.

Defending a total of 173 runs, India's bowling woes were left exposed in the game as the pace attack was taken to the cleaners. Barring the two spinners - R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal, who picked up four wickets between them, all other bowlers went wicket-less against Sri Lanka.

India's bowling has come under the scanner in the tournament but the team has struggled after an untimely injury to all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja which forced the Men in Blue to tinker with their combination. Though India roped in Axar Patel as a like-to-like replacement for Jadeja, they played Deepak Hooda in their first two Super Four clashes.

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As much as it was to strengthen the batting, Hooda's inclusion was as an all-rounder and he was expected to contribute with the ball as well in Jadeja's absence. However, that wasn't the case as Hooda didn't bowl a single over in the two matches against Pakistan and Sri Lanka, leaving many baffled.

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Indian skipper Rohit Sharma explained why Hooda didn't get to bowl even a single over against Sri Lanka and said he felt he needed to attack with his main spinners in the middle overs when India were looking for wickets. However, Rohit insisted he would have bowled Hooda had India managed to take early wickets.

"See, we have 6 bowling options but as I said we also have to try things with five bowlers as well. Today Deepak Hooda was there but Sri Lanka's two right-handers were set so I didn't think I could bring him on at that point because we were trying to get a breakthrough so I wanted our attacking spinners Ashwin and Chahal to bowl. If we had gotten a wicket early, I had planned to bowl Deepak Hooda," Rohit explained at the post-match presser.

"Six bowling options are always nice we know that and we have played with that combination. So when we go to the World Cup, that will be our thinking, to play with a combination which allows us to have six bowling options," he added.

Hooda was the sixth bowling option for India in the must-win game against Sri Lanka on Tuesday and could have been deployed when the Indian bowlers were being tonked to all parts of the ground by Sri Lankan openers, who added 97 runs for the first wicket and turned the game in their team's favour.

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Many also questioned the decision to not bowl Hooda as he was included in the playing XI at the sacrifice of Dinesh Karthik, who has been in red-hot form as a finisher. With two defeats in a row, India's chances of making it to the final are dim but they still have a glimmer of hope if some results go in their favour.