Shivam Dube shined brightly in the recent Afghanistan T20I series, hitting two half-centuries and taking 2 wickets. This earned him the Player of the Series award as India pocketed the series 3-0.
Dube was a completely different player in this series for India. Batting at No. 4 for India against Afghanistan, Dube smashed back-to-back match-winning fifties while also picking two wickets with his right-arm pace-bowling.
Impressed with Dube's performance in the series, veteran India off-spinner R Ashwin said that the Mumbai-based cricketer would be an ideal batter for India to have in West Indies, where the conditions are similar to that of Chepauk, Chennai Super Kings' home ground in the IPL.
“Hardik Pandya is a crucial member of this Indian team. However, the emergence of Shivam Dube… Just like how we divide years into Before Christ and After Christ, we can divide his career into ‘before CSK’ and ‘after CSK’. In West Indies conditions, which are almost CSK conditions, he is a spin-hitting monster,” the off-spinner said on his YouTube channel.
Ashwin further compared Dube's batting to India's two-time World Cup-winning all-rounder Yuvraj Singh for the way he takes on spinners.
“I can proudly call him the ‘Yuvraj Singh lite’ package. There are so many factoids about Yuvraj Singh that I could see in his game - the downswing, the height and the reach. I am not saying that he is like Yuvraj Singh, just saying he reminds me a lot of him. The beauty here is that he hits spin straight down the ground," he added.
Ashwin also backed Shivam Dube for the T20 World Cup and visualized him playing alongside Suryakumar Yadav.
“When Suryakumar Yadav is playing at one end, a team might try to suppress him by playing a left-arm spinner. When Shivam Dube is at the other end at this point, this is a great combination to have. The options that he gives to the team are tremendous. He can bowl two overs of his quota too," Ashwin said.
"He has proved that he can bowl cutters and has developed a back-of-the-hand slower delivery as well. It has just added worth in gold going into this World Cup,” Ashwin signed off.
(Hindustan Times inputs)
