Four-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will kick start their title defense in IPL 2022 in the season opener against the side they defeated in the final last year, Kolkata Knight Riders.
While once again all the eyes will be on CSK skipper MS Dhoni, one cricketer who will be looking to make a mark and prove himself to the captain will be Shivam Dube, the all-rounder who CSK found good enough to spend 4 crores at the mega-auction last month.
Dube was in good nick last season for the Rajasthan Royals and was in decent form during the white-ball domestic season.
Upon joining CSK’s camp in Surat, Dube met his childhood idol – former India captain MS Dhoni, who is playing perhaps his last IPL season.
Dube revealed some details of the chat he had with Dhoni upon arriving for the camp.
“I think you can still see the goosebumps coming out because always I’m a big fan of my Mahi bhai (MS Dhoni) and, especially CSK. I had a chat with Mahi bhai as recently as yesterday. He asked me to do a few things and I told him I’ll definitely do justice. When Mahi bhai asks you to do something, consider it done,” Shivam Dube said.
Before the Royals, Shivam Dube was part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise for the 2019 and 2020 seasons, during the years in which he also got the chance to make his India debut as the side hunted for Hardik Pandya’s backup following the axing of Vijay Shankar.
The lanky all-rounder featured in 1 ODI and 13 T20Is, but barring one half-century he couldn’t really make any notable contribution. In his last T20I for India, on the 2020 tour of New Zealand, Dube was smashed for 34 runs in one over and was dropped from the team not to be picked again yet.
In 24 IPL games for RCB and RR, the left-hander averages 22 while striking at a mediocre rate of 120; he’s picked only 4 wickets while leaking runs at more than 8 an over. Dube would be hoping to give a boost to his career under MS Dhoni’s tutelage this IPL.
