During his 23-ball 65 blitz against New Zealand on a pleasant Vizag night, Shivam Dube highlighted his increasing comfort against fast bowling. The India all-rounder credited the improvement to a better “mindset” that made him a “smarter” cricketer.
Though Dube’s 29-run assault against leg-spinner Ish Sodhi took center stage, his three sixes against pacers Jacob Duffy and Matt Henry were just as significant.
With that new perspective in Dube’s batting, many opponents will be wriggling in the planning room. It was a clear statement that he can no longer be kept quiet by merely bringing in a pacer. However, the man’s growth can be attributed to the regular opportunities he receives in elite cricket.
“It’s just the hard work which I’m doing. I’m getting better with my mindset because I’m playing all those matches and batting in that situation. So, I know what’s going to happen, what are the main things which a bowler is going to come to me,” PTI quoted Dube as saying in the post-match press conference in Visakhapatnam.
In this series, Dube has also had frequent opportunities to bowl, but he was not utilized because India adhered to their five front-line bowlers— and even Hardik Pandya did not bowl.
“That’s the key point for my batting and bowling as well. I’m bowling thanks to Gauti bhai (Gautam Gambhir) and Surya bhai (Suryakumar Yadav). They have given me the bowling opportunity. So, when you bowl, you become a little smart. So, I’m working on that as well and trying to develop some more skills,” he added.
Dube acknowledged that he has become much “smarter” as a cricket player over the past several months due to the consistent game time.
“Yes, I worked really hard, but I have got the opportunity to bowl, bat, and do everything in the match. So, there is something called experience and that has come to me and that is going in the right direction. There are many things people upgrade. All the players, the spinners, fast bowlers, the teams upgrade themselves. So, I can’t be the same as I was. I try to be a little better, a little smarter in the next game. So, I learned how to be a little smarter and what my strengths are and where I can target those.”
Dube thinks he can put more pressure on the opposition since he is more at ease with fast bowlers.
“It’s really important, it’s about the matchup. So, they want me to hit spinners. That is my role to get the strike-rate high in the middle overs. That is what I always try. It’s just not about the spinners, but fast bowlers as well. But yeah, definitely there is something where I know that this (hitting against spinners) is my strength. I can give pressure to the opponents at that time. So, my mindset is very clear at that time,” he said.
According to Dube, he wasn’t aiming for a specific number of balls to score runs. After Yuvraj Singh (12), Abhishek Sharma, and Colin Munro (14), the left-hander’s 15-ball half-century was the third fastest in Twenty20 Internationals.
“As a batsman, I don’t think about getting 15 less balls. I just try to focus on every ball. That is what I did today. I was focusing on every ball. I was not thinking about getting a fifty in 15 balls or whatever. I was just trying to play (balls) on merit.”
Then, in the 12th over, Dube gave Sodhi a shellacking.
“That is where I try to manage my skill and I try to keep the strike rate high in the middle overs. There were some instincts from my side. I thought that, okay, it’s difficult to hit spinners tonight. He (Sodhi) was bowling well. But I knew that even he is a little scared, he was going to bowl me the bad ball. I was ready for that. So I wanted to dominate at that time and that is what I did,” he noted.
