Former Indian opener Kris Srikkanth believes Shivam Dube has no chance of playing in the 2027 World Cup amid the ODI series against England. Dube returned with decent figures of 1-27 in six overs he bowled in the first ODI against England at Edgbaston, Birmingham, which the visitors won by six wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the series.

The medium pacer accounted for Will Jacks, with KL Rahul taking a brilliant catch while diving to his right. Dube could have also had the big wicket of Joe Root, who gave him a chance when he was on only seven but the medium pacer could not hang on to caught-and-bowl opportunity. Root then went on to score an unbeaten knock of 76 runs and the drop proved costly.

However, Srikkanth said Dube is only playing in ODIs as all-rounders like Hardik Pandya and Nitish Kumar Reddy are currently out with injuries.

Kris Srikkanth said on his YouTube Channel, “Don’t give chances to too many players though. For example, Shivam Dube has no chance of playing in the 2027 World Cup. But he is there only because Hardik Pandya and Nitish Kumar Reddy are injury prone.”

The 1983 World Cup-winning player said England would have been bowled out for 150 if Dube had taken Joe Root’s catch.

“Dube bowled well in this match and if he had held on to Root’s catch, England wouldn’t have even scored 150. He has a rule that he has to drop atleast one catch per match. He won’t get sleep if he doesn’t drop atleast one catch in a match. Likewise, we also won’t sleep and have anything to talk about if he doesn’t drop a catch. It’ll not just rain but snow in Chennai if Dube doesn’t drop a catch,” said Srikkanth (via the aforementioned source).

The second ODI between India and England will be played at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff on Thursday.