Did Morne Morkel give away India’s plan to include Shivam Dube in Asia Cup?
There’s no denying that Team India enter the Asia Cup as clear favourites. Let alone in the continent but the Men in Blue are perhaps the best T20 side across the globe. Yet, there are question marks over a couple of spots. The biggest one is the conundrum of choosing between your best bowling attack or elongating the batting till number eight to give the aggressive brand some cushion. One of the players involved in this debate is Shivam Dube, who would be in India’s playing XI for the Asia Cup if Suryakumar Yadav chooses batting depth.
Morkel wants to make Shivam Dube a 4-over bowler
If India does indeed include Shivam Dube in the mix over a specialist bowler, they’ll have batting till number eight, giving them extra buffer to play the way they like to. Predominantly a spin basher, Dube’s role in the team would elevate with him being the sixth-bowling option. For that, India’s bowling coach has been working behind the scenes with the medium pacer and wants to see him evolve as a four-over bowler in T20s.
Morkel emphasised that he has been pushing all-rounders to work hard on both the departments, i.e., batting and bowling. This might have give away the fact that the Gautam Gambhir-coached side might be looking forward to include Dube in the starting lineup.
“For me it’s always important to use Shivam as a guy who can bowl four overs,” Morne Morkel said while speaking to reporters at ICC Academy on Monday, September 8. “I’m always pushing for all-rounders to work hard on both skills. Sometimes guys can get a little naughty in practice and focus on one. But here we want to leave no stone unturned. On the day, conditions might favour him more than somebody else, and he needs to be ready to deliver.”
As we have seen often in previous T20 internationals, this Indian team likes to elongate the batting and have multiple multi-faceted players in the starting XI. Hence, working on Dube’s bowling has been on the Bingo card for Morkel, who was previously credited by Dube himself back in February. The conditions when they get slower in Dubai could also help Dube. However, this could also mean India might bench Kuldeep Yadav.
India squad for Asia Cup 2025:
Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh.
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