India skipper Suryakumar Yadav revealed the thought process behind the call to promote all-rounder Shivam Dube up the batting order after winning the IND vs ENG T20 World Cup 2026 semifinal match today (March 5). With the dominant show, the Indian team have now booked their berth in the summit clash and inched one step closer to realising their ambition of becoming the first team to successfully defend the T20 World Cup title.
Coming back to Shivam, he was sent out to bat at No.4, which is usually the spot for skipper Suryakumar Yadav. Nevertheless, the decision worked as he played a crucial knock of 43 off 25 balls and unfortunately missed out on a half-century after being run-out by Hardik Pandya.
Echoing on the same lines, SKY revealed during the post-match presentation ceremony,
“In this team, everything is settled till number three, so we didn’t want to change anything. But when we saw (Adil) Rashid bowling from one end, Dube was a perfect match-up. Even if I had scored a 50 or 100 in the last game, if the team needed that change today, it was the right call.”
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Speaking about the IND vs ENG clash, the Men in Blue impressed across all departments to win the thriller of a contest. Put to bat first, the co-hosts posted a towering total of 253/7 in 20 overs (India’s second-highest total in a T20 World Cup). Sanju Samson was the chief architect of this carnage with a fiery 89 off 42 balls while Dube also played a crucial cameo.
However, despite the tall ask, the England batters came out all guns blazing and remained in the contest till the end. Jacob Bethell slammed his maiden T20I hundred with a stellar knock of 105 off 48 balls, but India’s Jasprit Bumrah once again ended up being the game-changer with his tidy economy of 8.25 on a deck where everybody else got smacked.
Bumrah leaked just 14 runs from his last two overs (16th and 18th) which eventually made the equation extremely difficult for England and they fell short by just seven runs in the end.
India’s fielding, which has been criticised throughout the tournament, also looked top-notch with Axar Patel taking an unreal backward diving catch to dismiss Harry Brook and then combining with Shivam Dube in a relay catch for the wicket of Will Jacks.
Suryakumar Yadav & Co will now shift their focus to the final against New Zealand, slated to be played on March 5 in Ahemdabad.
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