Shivam Dube the focal point after India blank Afghanistan 3-0

As expected, an Afghanistan team missing Rashid Khan did not prove a challenge for an Indian side welcoming back Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli after 14 months and bristling with players around whom the future can be built. Another bilateral series won at home, another shiny trophy to add to the cupboards inside the corridors of the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai.

While Rohit’s personal contributions with the bat were two ducks – once the victim of Shubman Gill’s ball-watching, the second his own doing with a horrible shot – and a terrific century after Afghanistan stunned India with four wickets inside 4.3 overs in the dead rubber, Kohli made 29 off 16 deliveries at Indore and a golden duck at his second home, Bangalore’s Chinnaswamy Stadium. Neither will face opposition for the World Cup, so we can move on.

These three T20Is were India’s last in the format before the T20 World Cup in June, and from a 3-0 sweep of Afghanistan only one question has come forward which was not being asked before the series: does Shivam Dube now fit into India’s plans for the tournament they have not won since 2007?

Recalled to India’s T20I setup in July last year, after a stellar run for IPL winners Chennai Super Kings which saw him smash 418 runs at a strike-rate of 158.33, Dube has in five innings scored 171 runs with a strike-rate of 151.32, hitting nine sixes and 14 fours. His first T20Is since February 2020 were with a depleted India side in Ireland last year, where he batted once in two games, scored 22* off 16 balls and bowled three wicketless overs for 24 runs. He was then included for the Asian Games in China where India won gold, playing two matches, from which he had one innings of 25* from 19 balls and four wicketless overs that went for 46 runs.

The 30-year-old was named for the five-match series against Australia just after the ODI World Cup, but was deemed surplus to India’s needs and warmed the bench for those five games. He was then dropped for the South Africa tour.

Back in the mix for these three T20Is versus Afghanistan, Dube grabbed the opportunity with scores of 60* and 63* before the. Last match in which he made one run. That last blip aside, what set tongues wagging was Dube’s striking ability. Specifically, it was the type of monstrous hitting against spin bowlers for CSK – he clubbed 22 sixes off spin, the most for anyone in the 2023 IPL, at a strike-rate of 176.47 – which was witnessed in the Afghanistan series.

In Mohali, where he scored 60* off 40 balls, he hit only one boundary of a spinner – which was his first six off Mohammad Nabi – but only faced 12 balls from the slow bowlers. In the second match, played at Indore’s Holkar Stadium, a small ground with small boundaries, Dube smoked Nabi for three successive sixes and took Noor Ahmad for another. The idea of spin was immediately shelved, but Dube targeted the pace of Naveen-ul-Haq and took three fours in the 12^th over and rattled his way to 63* from 32 deliveries.

Straight away, as astounding as Dube’s hitting was in this series, his runs came on flat decks and against an Afghanistan side missing Rashid. His bowling yielded two wickets from seven overs at 30 apiece and an economy of 10 per over, but what Dube has provided the team management and BCCI selectors with, is a big-hitting left-hander option in the middle order for the T20 World Cup. Whether the management and selectors view Dube as just a batsman or an allrounder is what could potentially dictate his inclusion for the World Cup, pending, of course, his form for CSK in the upcoming IPL.

There is no one in the current scheme who hits the ball harder and farther than Dube. Hardik Pandya can slug sixes and has finished off many innings and matches, and as an allrounder his value is far greater than Dube’s, so when he returns he will be an automatic inclusion. Hence, we need to train our sights elsewhere to see how Dube could fit into India’s World Cup plans, provided he keeps the good work coming for CSK.

With Rohit and Kohli back, two slots are taken up. Yashaswi Jaiswal, by virtue of being a left-hander, gets the second opener’s slot. Suryakumar Yadav will return and bat at No 4. One slot will be Pandya’s, another the wicketkeeper’s, and then Axar Patel should hold down his place. So, for now, while fitting Dube into India’s first XI is difficult indeed, there is an argument for him finding a place in the World Cup squad. And for that, he should be looked at purely as a middle-order batsman with the license to hit out.

If the selectors tilt Dube’s way, it would, at this point of time, be at the expense of a batsman. Maybe Shubman Gill, whose stock is dipping and who, if Jaiswal opens with Rohit, will not find a way into the XI at the World Cup. Or maybe Shreyas Iyer, who though not a regular in India’s T20Is plans these days, is still a big asset on Caribbean pitches and who send a reminder with a strong comeback to the IPL with Kolkata Knight Riders.