Yuvraj Singh might be unsold in this session of IPL auction but here is a guy who is so much like Yuvraj Singh in his batting. His Stance, his power hitting and certainly his height suggests that there is something in Shivam Dube that resembles Yuvraj Singh.
Shivam has been on a hot seat in this auction. He was on the radar of so many IPL teams including the like of Mumbai Indians, KKR, RCb, and list went on. He is bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore for whopping 5 crores. his base price was just 20 lakhs.
Shivam plays for Mumbai in the Ranji trophy and he has been in the form of his life. At one stage, he was averaging 99.50 in the 5 matches that he had played he scored 489 runs and had 17 wickets in his pocket with batting and of 99.50. The numbers are staggering for someone who plays in the middle order of hugely talented Mumbai squad.
His recent run of form has caught the eyeballs of the selectors from all the franchises. Especially, when you take 7 wickets against the mighty Karnataka batting line up in Belgavi and scoring 100 against Gujarat.
He made is debut in the Vijay Hazare trophy against Karnataka and Vinay Kumar took hattrick and ran through the Mumbai batting in that game. 2018/19 is the season where he found all the strings working together. Just before the IPL auction, he scored 5 consecutive sixes against left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh at Wankhede in Mumbai and it has done a world of good for his price tag.
Sunil Gavaskar said “One player who will definitely be on the radar of the scouts of the franchises, as well as the national selectors, is Shivam Dubey. Not since Yuvraj Singh and Sourav Ganguly has a left-hander hit the ball so cleanly and powerfully in Indian cricket,”. When you get recognition from Sunil Gavaskar, then its a special talent in store.
It was more than (lack of) fitness, though that had threatened to derail his career.
“Dubey Ji, aap apne bete ko kya khilate ho (what do you feed your son), he hits such big sixes!” Chandrakant Pandit, former India player and a coach, remembers telling this to the father of a young Shivam Dubey, who is now a talented all-rounder in Mumbai’s Ranji team.
Do you believe that for 5 years in his early age was away from cricket? To be precise from 14-19 due to personal reasons but his father did not give up. He bought Shivam back to cricket. He supported in his early stages of career and Shivam started to flourish in U-19’s and U-23s and here he is being picked by Royal Challengers Bangalore and playing in the biggest domestic tournaments.
What can support from family do to you in terms of confidence, in terms of belief, in terms of success, in terms of life lesson is something which is not penned down in paper.
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