Life has taken a turn for the better for Shivam Dube in the past year. The Mumbai all-rounder was named in India’s T20 squad for the series against Bangladesh recently as a potential replacement for the injured Hardik Pandya.
Before that, Dube first grabbed national eyeballs when he was picked up by the Royal Challengers Bangalore for a whopping Rs.5 crores at the auctions in December last year.
While he did not enjoy the best of times in the Indian T20 league (40 runs and no wickets in 4 matches), he bounced back with his exploits in the recently-concluded Vijay Hazare Trophy.
In 8 matches, Dube batted in 5 innings and scored 177 runs at a phenomenal average of 88.5 and a strike-rate of 146.28, batting mostly at no.6. When Mumbai struggled in a 312-run chase against Karnataka, Dube stepped up, making 118 runs off 67 balls to give them a fighting chance, a game which they eventually ended up losing.
As a batsman, the 26-year-old can be a blessing in disguise for the Indian cricket team, whose middle-order- consisting of Vijay Shankar, Kedar Jadhav, Rishabh Pant, and MS Dhoni- flattered to deceive more often than not during the ODI World Cup.
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India need to cement their nos.4,5,6 in both ODI and T20 teams, and the likes of Kedar Jadhav and MS Dhoni cannot be a long-time plan anymore, considering Jadhav is 34 years old and MS Dhoni, 38. Going by recent comments, the latter may not even feature much anyway.
While the T20 team seems to be taking shape, the ODI squad is a bit more uncertain. Rishabh Pant has been backed by the team management to be their no.4 in ODIs and Shreyas Iyer’s recent outings against the Windies suggests he can oscillate between 4 and 5 seamlessly.
For some reason, Manish Pandey has been designated as a T20-only player for India, and so, they need a solid batsman at no.6 in the ODI team. This is where someone like Dube comes into the picture. He is a hard-hitting batsman who is comfortable batting in the lower-middle order and also comes with the added benefit of his bowling.
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"I think I have good power and I use that for hitting big. I practice a lot for big-hitting too. I have a separate session for it. I always go for two-three sessions and the last session is power hitting,” Dube said recently in an interview with ESPNCricinfo.
A case can be made for Vijay Shankar too here, considering he brings the same qualities to the table, but Shankar is better suited to a proper middle-order role rather than a finishing one.
Dube might have been included in the T20 squad only as a replacement for the injured Hardik Pandya but if he can show his prowess, he might pose a sweet headache for the Indian team going forward.
At 26, Dube is not very young, but he has made it to the national selectors’ radar at arguably the prime of his life. It remains to be seen whether he can bring his best game to the international arena, and if he does, India might have unearthed a good talent at just the right time.
Featured image courtesy: AFP/ Sajjad Hussain
