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For the past few days, experts on various cricket talk shows have questioned whether Hardik Pandya fits in the Indian squad for the T20 World Cup amid his bowling struggles. While few alleged that Hardik was injured after the all-rounder did not bowl in two matches, others fumed at his skills as a bowler after MS Dhoni smashed him for 20 runs in a recent IPL 2024 match. Hardik’s bowling form was precisely the discussion on Monday after India captain Rohit Sharma reportedly met India head coach Rahul Dravid and chairman of the selection committee Ajit Agarkar at the BCCI headquarters to discuss the squad for the T20 World Cup tournament in June. Amid the discussion on Hardik’s horror run in IPL, legendary cricketers have backed fellow all-rounder Shivam Dube for a spot in the T20 World Cup squad.
Speaking on air during the match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, where Dube carved out a match-winning 38-ball 66* to continue another dream season for CSK, former West Indies cricket Brian Lara insisted that the batter will be a huge asset for India on the Caribbean pitches for the World Cup tournament and hence the BCCI selectors ought to pick him.
“There’s a huge case for this guy, for this World cup that’s coming up. Shivam Dube…on the pitches in the Caribbean. I know India is playing a few matches in America. But the pitchers in the Caribbean would suit his style of batting. The stadiums, they are not that big. He would be an awesome asset for India,” he said.
Ravi Shastri, former India head coach, who was part of the commentary box, agreed to the statement saying, “No question about that. He will be tickling the selectors all the time.”
On Monday, ahead of the start of the IPL 2024 match between RCB and SRH, former India cricketer Irfan Pathan was all praise for Dube’s spin-hitting abilities, saying that no one among the present group of Indian players, capped or uncapped, comes close to the CSK batter when it comes to facing spinners and batting in the middle overs. He further admitted that once Dube, who has been so far used as an Impact Player by Chennai, starts bowling, he will put a lot of pressure on Hardik for a spot in the T20 World Cup.
“Eventually, there will be a time when he will start putting pressure on Hardik Pandya when he starts bowling. The kind of hitting ability Dube has, he is best to anyone, he is able to murder the spinner. I haven’t seen anyone. No one has come close to him in Indian cricket, among the current crop of players, obviously you have to negate Dhoni there because he is retired, but Dube is the best. I will be highly disappointed if he doesn’t go to the World Cup. That is the thing they have missed in so many T20 World Cups. We have missed a guy like Yuvraj Singh, who can hit 6 sixes or 3-4 sixes or score half-century in 16-17 balls. Hardik’s ability as a hitter has gone down and hence a lot of people are talking about Dube, and it might happen that both will be on that flight to the World Cup,” he said.
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