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Shivam Dube continues to be overlooked by the Indian selectors. A move which baffles Aakash Chopra.
Shivam Dube despite being a World Cup winner, has not been able to come back to the Indian team. (PTI Photo)
The former India cricketer-turned-commentator, Aakash Chopra, when reflecting on India’s T20I squad for the upcoming home series against England, questioned the Indian selectors for ignoring a T20 World Cup-winning all-rounder.
Shivam Dube played a key role in India’s title-winning campaign last year, and his absence from the side’s T20I setup baffled the former Indian opener. In fact, the selectors have decided to go with Nitish Reddy instead. The Hyderabad-based all-rounder has had an impressive run since making his Test debut, where he finished the Australian tour as India’s second-highest run-scorer with 298 runs and five wickets across the series.
“What happened to Shivam Dube? I wanted to talk about Ruturaj (Gaikwad) as well but he is not able to make his place. Rajat Patidar is also there. Obviously, there is a lot of batting. However, now I am going to focus a little bit on Shivam Dube. He was a member of the T20 World Cup-winning team,” he said, as quoted by the Hindustan Times.
Dube last played an international game during the third ODI against Sri Lanka in Colombo. He was also in the squad for the T20I series against Zimbabwe but was not picked for their most recent tour of South Africa.
“When you win, everyone should get the credit. He even played decently in the final. Before that, there were definitely some questions that he wasn’t fielding or batting well. However, then he played well and became the T20 World Cup champion,” Chopra commented.
Chopra had hinted that the all-rounder had some injury concerns recently which may have kept him out of the squad but the lack of conversations regarding the Mumbai all-rounder certainly was concerning to the cricketer-turned-pundit.
He believes that if Dube could make it to the World Cup squad earlier, he should be good to go for at least a year or two and questioned why the selectors did not give Dube the chance to redeem himself after being out injured.
“After that, he remained injured a little, didn’t get too many opportunities either, and is now out of the team. No one is talking about him as well. Riyan Parag is not being talked about because he is injured but no one is asking where Dube went. He suddenly disappeared from the horizon,” he said.
“If he was good enough to be a part of the World Cup squad, I am sure he would be worthy of playing for another one or two years. He has remained out because of injury, but there was a theory earlier that whoever goes out due to injury will come back in first, and whoever replaces him would have to sit out no matter what he might have done,” Chopra concluded.
