NEW YORK: Going into the game against USA, the form of
Shivam Dube
was a bit of a concern for the Indian team. He has been selected as a 'designated hitter' in the middle-overs but things were not falling in place for the lefthander. In fact, Dube's lean patch didn't actually start in the
T20 World Cup
either, but in the latter half of the IPL when he was playing for Chennai Super Kings.
He had a magnificent first phase which got him the ticket to the World Cup, but after that the performances tapered off. Dube, who scored 31 not out off 35 balls to help India cross the line against the USA, conceded that he was feeling the heat of a lean patch over the last one and a half months.
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"Yes, I was thinking about it, but there was no self-doubt. Here the conditions are such that I can't bat the way I bat for CSK. It demands a different way of batting and I was looking to do that,"
Dube
said.
There were phases in Wednesday's game when the left-hander struggled, but to his credit he didn't give his wicket away. It took him a while to hit his first six of the tournament, which went a long way in releasing the pressure. "This long a wait to hit a six? It might have happened in
Ranji Trophy
, but not in IPL, but the pitch is really difficult here. The ball sometimes shoots up, sometimes keeps low, moves around. I'm sure you have never seen a pitch like this in a T20 World Cup before," Dube said.
Range hitting is something that the man with long levers is used to doing, but that hasn't been the case for him here. In fact, even during training, it has been more about survival than hitting, which Dube concedes is "a little difficult".
"But the coaches, support-staff told me that I have the ability to deal with this and I will definitely not delete this from my memory," the 30-year-old said.
His 67-run partnership with
Suryakumar Yadav
finally helped India win beat the USA and the Mumbai cricketer said that the pair knew it all was about dealing with the difficult phase. "We knew we could hit the big shots even on this pitch, if he could get settled. Thankfully it happened that way."
He might have liked to get a bit of bowling as well, given the fact that he is playing as the fourth allrounder. "A six was hit off me and that's why I didn't get to bowl much, but that's fine," he said.
Going forward, the indications are that the team will stick with him for a while and the left-hander has to keep doing what he did for CSK if India are to come close to winning the World Cup.
English (US) ·