Aakash Chopra questions Shivam Dube's absence from India's squad for England T20Is

Aakash Chopra questioned the move from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to leave Shivam Dube out of the squad for the upcoming five-match T20I series at home against England. The southpaw made his last appearance for India in the ODI series against Sri Lanka in August.

Dube played all of India's matches in the T20 World Cup 2024. However, he failed to make much of an impact, barring the final when he played a crucial 27-run knock off 16 balls against South Africa to help the Men in Blue win the title. Chopra acknowledged that Dube failed to live up to this potential in the initial phase of the tournament but he bounced back strongly to redeem himself.

"What happened to Shivam Dube? I wanted to talk about Ruturaj (Gaikwad) as well but he is not able to make his place. Rajat Patidar is also there. Obviously, there is a lot of batting. However, now I am going to focus a little bit on Shivam Dube. He was a member of the T20 World Cup-winning team," Chopra said in a video released on his official YouTube channel.

"When you win, everyone should get the credit. He even played decently in the final. Before that, there were definitely some questions that he wasn't fielding or batting well. However, then he played well and became the T20 World Cup champion," Chopra observed.

He suddenly disappeared from the horizon: Chopra

During the 20-team tournament, the Mumbai all-rounder finished with 133 runs from eight innings at a strike rate of 114.65. Chopra feels that Dube slipped out of contention all of a sudden. Aakash Chopra suggested that as per the previous protocol, Dube should be picked in the side ahead of anybody else when he regains full fitness.

Also Read: Monty Panesar suggests dual-coach strategy for Team India

"After that, he remained injured a little, didn't get too many opportunities either, and is now out of the team. No one is talking about him as well. Riyan Parag is not being talked about because he is injured but no one is asking where Dube went. He suddenly disappeared from the horizon," he further continued.

"If he was good enough to be a part of the World Cup squad, I am sure he would be worthy of playing for another one or two years. He has remained out because of injury, but there was a theory earlier that whoever goes out due to injury, will come back in first, and whoever replaced him would have to sit out no matter what he might have done," Chopra concluded.

The 31-year-old has played four ODIs and 33 T20Is for India. He has scored 43 and 448 runs, respectively. In the 50-over format, he has one scalp to his name. Meanwhile, in T20Is, he has taken 11 wickets so far.