While Hardik Pandya is recovering from an ankle injury that he sustained three months ago, Shivam Dube grabbed his opportunity with both hands in the first T20I against Afghanistan.
Hardik Pandya suffered an ankle injury during the first half of the World Cup 2023 and is yet out of action; he will straightaway make his comeback in the IPL 2024 season, leading the Mumbai Indians. While Pandya is the new Mumbai Indians captain, Rohit Sharma is likely to lead India in the T20 World Cup 2024.
With Shivam Dube putting a brilliant all-round performance in Mohali against Afghanistan, a section of fans urged skipper Rohit Sharma to build Dube as the seam-bowling all-rounder in the T20I team and replace Pandya with him.
In the first T20I, Shivam Dube bowled two overs, returning with impressive figures of 1/9, taking an important wicket of Afghanistan opener Ibrahim Zadran. With the bat then, in the chase of 159, Dube, batting at number 4, cracked 60* runs in 40, and finished off the match with a four. He walloped 5 fours and 2 sixes in his entertaining innings as India won by 6 wickets and 15 balls to spare.
Some fans suggested Rohit Sharma replace Hardik Pandya with Shivam Dube:
Dube had a ballistic season with CSK last year, where he emerged as a blockbuster spin basher and was a key cog in CSK’s title-winning campaign.
After the match, the all-rounder revealed the pep talk captain Rohit Sharma gave him that boosted his confidence, and also how Rohit wants him to bowl more, even though he didn’t bowl a single over in last IPL.
“Rohit Sharma said that I played really well and that we’ll chat to improve my game in upcoming games. Today, I got the opportunity with the ball and executed what I had to,” Dube said.
The second T20I is scheduled for Sunday in Indore.
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