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Psychological safety is the buzzword.
Shivam Dube’s talent knew no boundaries, but not many franchises recognised the best fit for him in their setup. Across 57 Indian Premier League (IPL) matches, there is only one franchise – Chennai Super Kings (CSK) – who have given the southpaw an extended run at his preferred position.
That has reflected in the results, with Dube scoring 533 runs for the franchise, averaging a staggering 48.45 striking at 174.8. Over the last two years, he’s earned quite a reputation for being a spin basher.
In his first season with the Super Kings, Dube didn’t quite get going against spin, with a strike rate of 133.3. Come 2023, those figures went up astronomically with 210 runs against spinners, becoming one of the rare batters in the competition to average over 50 and strike at more than 170 against tweakers.
In case you were wondering, in the last two years, no other Indian batter in the competition is even in the spin-hitting range as Dube, with the swashbuckling batter averaging 55 and striking at 179.7.
His long reach makes him even more destructive, which reduces the margin of error for the bowler to almost a tiny dot. That is demonstrative in how he has taken the attack to the spinners, finding a boundary every 4.5 deliveries.
So what, you may wonder?
Only two batters (min 150 runs) have a better BPB against spin than Dube’s 4.5 - Abhishek Sharma and Prabhsimran Singh - but neither stay at the crease as long as Dube.
If prolonged aggression is the name of the game, Dube is the biggest player, making it extremely tough for the opposition. Last year, no other batter in the competition’s length and depth hit as many sixes as Dube did (22), showing that his prowess against the spin is quite special.
How will that help India?
Considering that India might play the duo of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in their top two or top three, it leaves him with very little option for breaking down spin units.
In T20 Internationals (T20Is) since the end of the 2022 T20 World Cup, India’s best batter against spin has been Suryakumar Yadav, who has hit 310 runs, averaging nearly 103.3, with a strike rate of 133.1.
Amongst all the 12 players to have batted for India in the middle order since the culmination of the 2022 T20 World Cup, the average strike rate for an Indian middle order is just 128, with a mean batting average of 46.
It shows how there is already a scarcity in the Indian setup for quality batters against spin. The irony is that Dube has the second-best strike rate among all those Indian batters (min 18 balls), striking at 162.5, with the best being Axar Patel (180).
He dealt in just sixes against the tweakers while donning the Indian blue (6). It was his aggressive play against the spinners that caught the attention of one and all during India’s win over Afghanistan.
In an RHB-dominated lineup, having a southpaw that can prevent the bowling team from lining up with leg spin and left-arm spin could be greatly beneficial. There is no doubt whatsoever that Dube is one of the best hitters in the country against spin bowling.
When teams realised that, they simply stopped bowling spin as it reflects in the above pitch-map for the southpaw across two IPL seasons.
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“When he (Dube) comes on, they take the spinners off (and) they put the pacemen on. He has become more and more effective at that. But they (MI) didn't bowl spin again (in) the rest of the game because he was at the wicket,” CSK’s bowling coach Eric Simmons pointed out at what makes Dube 2.0 more effective.
One of Dube’s perceived weaknesses over the years was his ability against pacers, especially against the ball that was pitched short. It was an obvious ploy coming into IPL 2024, given that it worked in the yesteryear when he was only striking at 143.4 against the pacers (IPL 2023) and averaging 29.71.
March 22, 2024, The first match of the 2024 IPL season. Chasing 174, CSK were 99/3, and under pressure in their backyard.
That’s when Dube walked out to bat for the first time this year.
In IPL 2023, the left-hander was dismissed twice when the ball was pitched short, and even his strike rate wasn’t too attractive - 129. Slowly yet steadily, it became clear that there was evident trouble in that engine for Dube. And RCB knew that.
Barring three deliveries (against Maxwell), the left-hander only faced pacers in the entire innings. In that entire innings, RCB bowlers had short balls as their Plan A, with 88% of the deliveries short.
Dube wasn’t in total control either, with just six runs off the first 10 balls, with eight of them short balls. However, in the next 14 deliveries, Dube scored 28, striking at 200, showing that his game against short balls isn’t that bad.
It was a pattern that followed for the rest of the tournament.
Even the five-time IPL champions, Mumbai Indians, completely shut spin against Dube and instead went all-out bowling pace. In the post-match presentation, their skipper, Hardik Pandya, admitted that they planned to bowl only pace to the left-hander.
“It was just about what was best at that point,” is what Hardik said in the post-match presentation.
Against pace in that clash, the Mumbaikar smacked 65 off 37 balls, with 10 fours and two sixes. They were thoroughly destroyed whenever MI’s bowling unit tried to bowl short, with the 30-year-old smashing 30 off 15 deliveries.
MI or RCB weren’t the only sides that Dube punished.
This season, 44.9% of the deliveries against Dube were short, but none, barring that slower delivery from Pat Cummins, made any difference. The fascinating part about all of this is what you will read next.
Against the 40 short-pitched deliveries post the RCB clash, the 30-year-old has scored 68 runs, striking at 170, absolutely decimating the pacers. If you include the RCB clash, he has scored 102 off 62 balls, striking at 165.
The margin is such that you travel to the moon if you make a small error. Even his so-called perceived weakness has become his apparent strength - which will only improve the national side.
Interestingly, another common misconception against Dube is that he doesn’t rotate enough strike against pace and only goes six or dot. In the last two seasons of the IPL, amongst the Indians, Dube has the third-lowest dot-ball percentage (min 200 balls) against pacers (30.8), only behind Shubman Gill (28.3) and Suryakumar Yadav (29.5).
Even someone like Kohli, known to be a beast against pacers, has a dot-ball percentage of 31.7, primarily batting in the powerplay. These are some metrics that show you that his game against pace has improved by leaps and bounds.
What Dube has done over the last two years has just transcended all the boundaries. In this year’s IPL, only one player averages 50 and strikes at 150 against pace and spin, and there are no prizes for guessing.
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Dube’s influence isn’t purely just numbers. His ability now against pace has added an extra arsenal to Chennai’s armour. Psychologically, as well, it has made a huge difference.
“It's about how you control the match and someone like him can control it because they can't bowl spin anymore. They don't want to. They're scared to. His ability to be effective against the pace bowling has become a massive asset for him,” Simons elucidated.
“From Shivam Dube's perspective, to play like he does, you have to initially take risks. There was a while that he was battling a bit. But allowing someone to grow, allowing someone to feel safe, to make mistakes and become better is an important part of it and that's what's happened with him."
Slowly yet steadily, over the last two years, the left-hander has improved his batting to a level where the chinks in his armour are now just mere crumbs. You could see that in the way CSK have used him this season.
His entry points have been personalised to a level where the chances of failure are low - 10.2 overs (RCB), 10.1 (GT), 10.2 (DC), 7.1 (SRH), 12.3 (KKR), and 7.5 (MI). It is where India would normally use him if they picked him for the global event.
Barring one occasion - against SRH - he has either never been dismissed or hasn’t been dismissed before the start of the death overs. Even in that clash against SRH, when he exited, he had already damaged SRH’s bowling unit, scoring a 24-ball 45, taking CSK from 54 to 119.
He’s shown that he’s no one-trick pony, with his ability to both soak the pressure and then counterattack. That’s exactly where his inclusion could bolster India through the middle-over phase, considering that their finishers - Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja - aren’t in the best possible shape.
Since IPL 2023, Dube has scored the most runs (532) for an Indian batter (No. 4 or 5), averaging 48.36, with a strike rate of 160.7. If you were wondering, the mean batting average and strike rate for Indian No.4s and 5s were 29.5 and 134.8.
Only one certain Suryakumar Yadav (170.8) bettered Dube’s strike rate. Pairing them together might just well be the cheat code that India were looking at in their quest for a second T20 World Cup title.
“I love his power. I’m biased, aren’t I? But I think when you have a bit different power like that; I would have him in the side (for World Cup),” Fleming also weighed in on the debate.
Dube can not just hit spin but can absolutely tonk a tank against pacers. There’s no way India can ignore the stunning Dube, now more than ever.
Physically or psychologically, India couldn't have asked for a better beast in the middle order.
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