India vs Bangladesh: MSK Prasad reveals the reason behind picking Shivam Dube ahead of Vijay Shankar in the T20I squad

After a successful Test series against South Africa, the Indian team is now set to take on Bangladesh for a T20I and Test series starting from 3rd of November. And there were quite a few shocking inclusions that were made by the selectors in the team for the T20I series. On one side rookie Mumbai all-rounder Shivam Dube earned his maiden call up whereas after a span of three years Sanju Samson returns to the T20I squad.

Hardik Pandya was ruled out of the action due to his back injury and the main question was that who will replace him in the team. There were chances that selectors will go with Vijay Shankar who made his international debut earlier this year, but going against all the odds Shivam Dube earned a call-up. In the press conference chief selector, MSK Prasad cleared the fact of giving Shivam preference over Shankar.

MSK Prasad tells why they picked Shivam Dube over Vijay Shankar 

Former Indian wicketkeeper MSK Prasad feels that Shivam Dube fits the aggressive role better than Vijay Shankar at the moment, as well as the impressive form of Mumbai all-rounder,  gave him an edge over Tamil Nadu all-rounder.

“In our earlier T20 squad, we had Hardik [who’s now recovering from back surgery]. We also tried Vijay Shankar. We all felt that the role Shivam has to deliver in, he fits it much better. He bats aggressively, his performances in India A series in the West Indies and also against South Africa in the one-dayers was phenomenal. Dube has come up by leaps and bounds and we are convinced,” the chief selector told the reporters.

Mumbai all-rounder Shivam Dube caught the spotlight back in 2018 after hitting five successive sixes in a Ranji Trophy match against Baroda. Just after that, he got picked up by Royal Challengers Bangalore by paying a whopping Rs 5 crore at the IPL Auction 2019. Most recently, he helped Mumbai to reach quarter-finals in Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20. In that domestic tournament, he scored 177 runs in five innings. The breakthrough innings for him came against Karnataka in which he played a smashing knock of 118 runs that included seven fours and 10 big sixes.

Video Quiz: How well do you remember Usman Shinwari’s five-wicket haul against SL?

[interaction id=”5da07a3f923548163317453b”]