CSK’s hand in Shivam Dube’s evolution: Nurtured as a spin hitter, now thriving against pace

It’s hard to find positives in a 50-run loss in a T20I game but the Indian team won’t be too unhappy with what transpired in the fourth T20I in Vizag. The 23-ball 65 by Shivam Dube after a top-order wobble was a reminder to opposition teams about the dynamite batter India will have up their sleeve in the middle order in the T20 World Cup starting next month.

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IPL watchers will know that teams are wary of using spin against Chennai Super Kings’ Dube after the 10th over. In CSK, where the gentle giant has been playing since 2022, Dube has flourished in this role.




Incidentally, Dube had made his T20I debut for India before he played for CSK. But in the 13 T20Is that he played before that as a middle-order batter who could bowl medium-pace, the left-hander failed to carve his niche. CSK first took note of him during an inconsequential IPL game in Abu Dhabi in 2021, when they had already qualified for a top-two finish.

In that match, Dube was playing for Rajasthan Royals. Chasing 190, Dube came up with a 42-ball 64 which led to CSK’s defeat. MS Dhoni and CSK coach Stephen Fleming identified the talent that Dube had against spin and in the auctions for the 2022 edition, he was picked for Rs 4 crore.


Still, Dube wasn’t a sure-fire selection. Before the IPL, five-time champions CSK had a training camp in Surat. During that camp, Dube’s over-boundaries, using his long levers against spin, were often beating MS Dhoni’s sixes by 20-30 metres. Some of those sixes even broke the window panes in the fourth-tier balconies of the stadium.

That show convinced the management of his big-hitting abilities but Dube’s CSK stint hadn’t started on a happy note. He had given away 25 runs in the 19th over against LSG in Mumbai and had become a bit of a villain for the fans of the ‘Yellow Army’. But Dhoni stressed that bowling wasn’t the reason CSK had bought Dube and persisted with him purely as a batter.

The temperamentally sound southpaw eventually announced himself with a 46-ball 95 against RCB in Mumbai, when he took down the likes of Wanindu Hasaranga and Glenn Maxwell. He hasn’t looked back since and despite several attempts by other franchises to lure him out of CSK, the team management has stuck with him, making him one of their highest-paid retainees for Rs 12 crore.

While Dube has gone from strength to strength with his performances against spin, sometimes his technique against genuine pace has been a bit of a worry. The short ball has troubled him on and off but Dube has worked on it. These days, he is quite effective against medium-pacers, as was evident on Wednesday when he took on the likes of Zak Foulkes and Jacob Duffy.

But during his four-year stint in CSK, one area that has been neglected a bit is his bowling. Due to the impact player rule, the think-tank hasn’t found the necessity to give him enough overs. But the Indian team management wants to use his bowling skills as well and in the Asia Cup final against Pakistan in Dubai last year, he was given the responsibility of opening the attack in spinfriendly conditions.

Dube has developed a clever change of pace and the occasional wide yorker. One feels he isn’t too far behind with the ball to Nitish Reddy, who is being prepared as a back-up mediumpace allrounder for Hardik Pandya.


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