Shivam Dube will be India's best in T20 World Cup 2026 final.
Former India cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin has devised a plan for New Zealand on how to stop Shivam Dube. While the Kiwis have a quality spin attack, Dube remains their biggest threat – thanks to his big reach and immense power.
On his YouTube channel, Ashwin explained that the opponent should either bowl outside the leg stump or wider lines away from the batter’s eyeline. He highlighted the wagon wheel to explain that he often doesn’t hit boundaries square of the wicket on either side.
“I’m Shivam Dube, standing leg stump slightly outside. He is bowled a bowl here (on the pads), and because he is looking to hit that ball, he’s not gonna say that’s a wide and let it go. Shivam Dube’s wagon wheel clearly suggests that square of the wicket on the off side and towards square leg on the leg side is a no-hit zone for him. I’d suggest to take the ball wide away from him or be behind his boots, or get him to cut that ball.”
That’s because Dube doesn’t move his legs much and prefers hitting down the ground, so the square leg on the leg side and the point and third man region on the off side become inaccessible. Since 2025, he has scored only 11.65% of his total runs and hit just four boundaries from the square-leg region on the leg side to the point region on the off side against spin.
India will have obvious matchups against spin, with the likes of Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, and Tilak Varma showing significant weaknesses. Abhishek has lost his wicket thrice against off-spin, Suryakumar has issues with left-arm spin, and Tilak fails to accelerate against all kinds of finger spin.
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Tilak’s obvious loophole in technique forced India to push him to No.5 and bring in Sanju Samson at the top. But with the Kiwis having as many as four quality spin options, Shivam Dube might need to come ahead of Tilak, as he did against England in the last game.
With Adil Rashid and Liam Dawson in the opponent’s bowling lineup, India promoted Dube to No.4 ahead of Suryakumar and Tilak, which proved to be the right decision. He scored 43 runs at a strike rate of 172, hitting spinners for three boundaries and striking at 240 at the Wankhede Stadium.
New Zealand will come up with their plans, and the southpaw must step up in a big final again, as he has done a couple of times before. India’s spin issues have only a few solutions with the resources available in the squad, and Dube remains the most significant one.
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