Former Indian opener Kris Srikkanth showered praise on Shivam Dube after India registered a 48-run win against Australia in the fourth T20I at Gold Coast on Thursday. Srikkanth said Dube has the wicket-taking luck on his side.
Dube returned with figures of 2-20 in the two overs he bowled. The medium pacer accounted for the Australian captain, Mitchell Marsh, and hard-hitter Tim David to play a key role in skittling out the hosts at 119. The former Indian captain praised Dube for being smart while bowling to Tim David.
Kris Srikkanth said on his YouTube Channel, “He bowled intelligently to get the wicket of Tim David. It was a slow bouncer into the body. Last match, David smashed sixes off the front foot from outside the off-stump. So once it was slow into the body, he miscued the big hit. He has the wicket-taking luck. He bowls something but ends up picking up wickets.”
“And two big wickets today of Marsh and David. The former was just a rank long hop that Marsh hit straight into the hands of square leg. But he bowled intelligently to David. After getting hit for a six, he bowled the perfect bouncer. Tim David if you bowl short and into the body, he’ll struggle. He’s waiting to just smash it on the front foot.”
Furthermore, Dube scored 22 runs after he was promoted to number three by the team management. Srikkanth said Dube was promoted to take the attack against Adam Zampa.
“He came just to hit sixes off Zampa. His role is when a Zampa or a left-arm spinner comes, go for sixes. But we have to wait and watch where so much shuffling of the batting order will lead to,” said Srikkanth (via the aforementioned source).
The former Indian captain highlighted that Indian batters didn’t play with a great strike rate as it wasn’t an easy pitch.
“No one played with a great strike rate. Finally, Shubman Gill scored some runs. He played decently and scored a 40 after a long time. But his strike rate was nothing big. Maybe the wicket conditions were not very good.”
The fifth and final T20I of the series between Australia and India will be played at the Gabba, Brisbane, on Saturday.
