The 6-feet-tall Mumbai all-rounder is a right-arm medium pacer and a left-handed batsman and has the required temperament and the skillset to excel at the top of the international cricket. His journey from almost giving up cricket to making a comeback battling health and fitness issues is a story straight out of films.
A batting all-rounder, Shivam Dube was born on 26 June 1993 in Mumbai, India and nearly left Cricket at the age of 14 before making a comeback in the Mumbai U-23 team at the teenage age of 19.
Dube hogged the limelight when he peeled off five sixes in five balls off left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh on December 17 on the final day of their Ranji Trophy match against Baroda. It was the second time he had scored five sixes in an over, after doing it against Pravin Tambe in the T20 Mumbai League in March.
Shivam Dube has played junior cricket for his state before making it to the senior team in domestic cricket. Dube made his list A debut for Mumbai in Vijay Hazare Trophy in February 2017 against Rajasthan in Chennai. He made his Twenty20 debut in January 2016 for Mumbai during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Dube’s first-class debut came in December 2017 when he played for Mumbai in Ranji Trophy against Karnataka. In the first innings, he took his maiden five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.
Just a day before the 2018 IPL auction, Shivam Dube caught the attention of the nation by plundering five sixes in five balls off left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh on December 17 on the final day of their Ranji Trophy match against Baroda. The auction held the very next day in Jaipur saw the uncapped player garnering a lot of attention. Eventually, he was picked by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for a whopping Rs 5 crore and is still with the team. He didn’t get many chances in the 2019 IPL but the 2020 season is expected to be a breakthrough season for him as RCB had made their squad around Indian players.
Shivam Dube made his T20 debut against Bangladesh on 3 November 2019 and made an impact in the series decider.
With the series tied 1-1 India gambled in Nagpur by picking just five bowlers, including Dube, who had bowled a mere three balls on his T20I debut in Delhi, and then just two overs in the second match in Rajkot.
In Nagpur, with the series on the line, Dube teamed up with Deepak Chahar and triggered a game-changing Bangladesh collapse. Dube had leaked 23 runs in his first two overs, and when he returned to the attack for the 14th over, Bangladesh needed 65 from 42 balls with seven wickets in hand, with half-centurion Mohammad Naim and the vastly experienced Mushfiqur Rahim in the middle.
Dube struck with the first ball of his new spell, tricking Mushfiqur with a slower cutter and having him chop on for a golden duck. Then, in his next over, he nailed an off-stump yorker to get rid of Naim for 81. This was the same game in which Deepak Chahar took record figures of 6 for 7 and created a world record.
India won by 30 runs and Dube finished with figures of 3 for 30. It was only for the sixth time in 20 T20 games that he finished his quota of four overs.
However, the euphoria of success plateaued when India toured New Zealand at the start of the year. Playing in the 5th T20 of the series, Shivam Dube was belted for 34 runs by the duo of Ross Taylor and Tim Seifert in the tenth over of the second innings during the fifth T20I. The 34-runs conceded by Dube in the over is now the second most expensive over bowled in the history of the format, behind Stuart Broad’s 36 runs.
Shivam Dube played his only ODI on 15 December 2019 against West Indies. Dube had a forgettable debut as he scored a measly 9 runs before being scalped by Keemo Paul. He didn’t fare much well in the bowling department either as the Mumbai all-rounder was plundered for 68 runs in 7.5 overs.
Shivam Dube was born on 26 June 1993 and while Dube’s ascent to the top does seem rapid, what makes his journey even more intriguing is the fact that he had given up on cricket entirely from the age of 13 to 17. Shivam’s father Rajesh Dube was a wrestler in his youth but the passion he had for cricket, along with the potential he saw in Shivam when he was as young as five, convinced him to devote his life to training his son. There was a turf pitch that was prepared behind their house and the father-son duo would practice for hours.
