Indian All-rounder Shivam Dube became the third Indian player, following Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli, to score a half-century and take a wicket in the same T20I match on several occasions. Yuvraj has accomplished this feat three times, while Kohli and Dube have done it twice for the Indian team, as the Mumbai-born all-rounder has done it in consecutive games.
In the second T20I against Afghanistan, Shivam Dube scored 63 runs off 32 balls and took one wicket in three overs. In the first T20I, Dube scored 60 runs and took one wicket for nine runs in two overs. By completing his second straight unbeaten fifty and collecting one wicket, Dube joined Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh on an elite list to surpass Hardik Pandya, who has done it once.
Hardik Pandya, Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, and Washington Sundar are other Indian cricketers who have scored fifty and taken at least one wicket in the same Twenty20 International match for a single time so far in their career.
Following his Player-of-the-Match performance in the previous game, Shivam Dube maintained his momentum on Sunday, putting on another superb display to help India win comfortably by six wickets at the Holkar Stadium, allowing the Men in Blue to win the three-match series 2-0.
Shivam Dube batted at No. 4 in the second T20I and scored 63 runs off 32 balls, including five fours and four sixes. The left-handed all-rounder combined to score 92 runs for the third wicket alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal, who top-scored for India with 68 runs from 34 balls.
Dube took a wicket in his first over of the encounter as he pierced Azmatullah Omarzai’s defence and smashed his stumps.
Shivam Dube would most likely be Hardik Pandya’s backup all-rounder at the 2024 T20 World Cup. The southpaw has been in fantastic form, scoring back-to-back half-centuries against Afghanistan’s Ibrahim Zadran, and will be hoping to continue his good form in the final T20I.
Shivam Dube’s return to the Indian team followed his outstanding performance with the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2023. The left-handed batsman scored 411 runs in 14 innings with a strike rate of 159.92, considerably contributing to their title-winning campaigns, and will look to maintain his excellent form in International Cricket and the IPL 2024 to secure a spot in India’s 2024 T20 World Cup squad.
