How MS Dhoni's Short And Sweet Advice Revived Shivam Dube's Career

MS Dhoni is known to be a great mentor of many young and budding cricketers and Shivam Dube is one of them. Dube got a very important advice for Dhoni at CSK which helped him find his best as a batter again.

MS Dhoni and Shivam Dube. (Image: ANI)

India have found a new batting hero in T20Is in form of Shivam Dube. The left-handed batter has played two match-winning innings for India in the series so far, both while chasing a target. In the first T20I, Dube struck unbeaten 60 off 40 balls before he constructed another beautiful innings of 63 runs off 32 balls. Not to forget, this is Dube's 2nd stint with the Indian team as the first time he was picked to play in T20Is, he had failed to live up to the benchmark.

Dube has had his tough time as short balls became his weakness. Then in 2022 IPL mega auction, he was picked by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and his times changed. MS Dhoni put a lot of faith in his ability and gave him  a long rope in the middle order. Dube soon rediscovered his mojo as he went on to smash play some very good innings for five-time IPL champions.

Dube was instrumental in CSK winning the title in IPL 2023 too. Abhinav Mukund, who is an ex-CSKian and a former India Test opener, said that Dube's game changed largely because of one advice for MS Dhoni.  

"A little birdie told me that Dube had a chat with MS Dhoni and he told him - not rocket science - don't attack the short ball," Mukund told Jio Cinema.

In the last 2 years, Dube has come a long way as a T20 batter. Till 2020, Dube had played 43 innings, scoring just 528 runs with just fifty to his name. But from 2021, he has become a much better batte. From 2021 to this far, he has played 62 innings, scoring 1682 runs  with 8 fifties to his name.

Dube says that practice and following a process has taken him here. "It’s difficult when things don’t go your way. You cannot do anything about it. I practised hard, followed a process to get better and worked on the mental and physical aspect," Dube told Jio Cinema before adding that IPL performance has helped him immensely to get back to Indian team. "The more you play T20s, the better idea you get about the combination, so it’s important for all the players and the team. IPL will be very important along with the last two matches of the Afghanistan series. IPL is a big platform, if you do well there, you get a chance to make it to the Indian team," said Dube.