The Men in Blue have played three different batters at No.3 in the last four T20Is.
With the T20 World Cup well within sight, all teams have begun their preparations for the coveted tournament scheduled to be played early next year. The Men in Blue are battling it out against the Australians Down Under. With the series well set at 1-1, the 4th T20I became all to play for. After being put into bat, the Indians sent Shivam Dube at No.3, which turned quite a surprise for the fans.
In the four T20Is in the series against Australia till now, the Indians have used three different batters for the No.3 spot. Suryakumar Yadav, Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube have been taking the No.3 spot. However, with Tilak Varma waiting for his chance to bat, many fans believed that it would have been the right spot for the Mumbai Indians (MI) batter to come in.
Even if Gautam Gambhir and the Indian management wanted to maintain the left-right combination, Tilak Varma could have been the easier choice in terms of the spot. The youngster has proven his mettle in terms of building the innings and can construct his innings really well if he is given the time to do so. Hence, Shivam Dube at No.3 did not make sense to a lot of fans, and they did not hold back from expressing their disappointment.
Stats suggest that Shivam Dube has scored most of his runs at No.5 in T20Is. On the other hand, Tilak Varma has been good in the top-order, and should have been utilized at No.3. One factor behind sending Shivam Dube at No.3 could have been to take the spinners on. But the left-hander was soon dismissed and couldn’t create a lot of impact.
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The 32-year-old was only able to score 22 runs off 18 deliveries during his brief stay out in the middle. Moreover, he was only able to manage a solitary boundary and maximum. To add to that, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batter looked really rusty against medium pace bowling, and was dismissed to Nathan Ellis, to a delivery which was angled straight towards the stumps.
Batting at No.3 requires a specific skill for any batter, and in this Indian T20I setup, the best batter to take that slot is Tilak Varma. Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill had provided the team with a decent start upfront, and the innings had to be built from there on.
Additionally, performing well against medium pacers and their variations has been Shivam Dube’s Achilles heal for quite some time. The moment the bowler takes the pace off the ball, Dube struggles to time the delivery. His dismissal to Ellis in the 4th T20I was a result of a slower ball, which the left-handed batter was unable to read.
However, Dube is a clean hitter of the spinning delivery, which he gave a glimpse of, against Adam Zampa. The solitary six which came off his bat went 106 metres far, which was humongous. Having said that, the 32-year-old will have to up his game against fast bowling options.
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