December 17th, 2018. Mumbai was playing Baroda in the Ranji Trophy. It was the final day. Shivam Dube was batting at 45. A day before this, Hardik Pandya approached Dube, asked him to showcase his talent, to be strong. Shreyas Iyer, during the break, literally scolded him was batting slowly even though the match was heading to a draw. Both the cricketers wanted Dube to be there in the moment, give his fullest. Dube nodded and understood the importance of the opportunity. He went on to smash five sixes in an over missed out on the sixth as the bowler deliberately bowled a wide. He ended scoring 76 from 60 deliveries with seven sixes and three fours. He grabbed the headlines the next day.
No no. Not only for this knock. The next day, December 18th 2018, it was the auction of IPL 2019. Dube sat before the television along with the family and watched him go under the hammer. RCB picked him for Rs 5 Crores.
He failed. It was so miserable. He was upset and didn’t know what he was doing. It took Gary Kirsten and Ashish Nehra to get him back to the game.
Dube soon realized it, took a gigantic leap in the India A side and months later, he went in as the replacement for Hardik Pandya.
Dube has always been a fast learner. His father was a wrestler and right when he was born, he wanted Dube to pick up a sport. Dube was into cricket, of course, Mumbai has so many local idols. The family had a turf behind their house, and his father would bowl him daily. Later, he would bat and allowed him to master bowling. Later, he took up the game professionally.
Dube was 14 when tragedy hit the family. His father lost everything, and the family was in huge debts. Survival became difficult, and cricket wasn’t even an option. Dube had no choice but to give up the game. The worst part was his father began to battle depression. Dube knew something was wrong, but he was too young to understand it. Dube’s father took three to four years to make things happen in the family. Dube, on the other hand, had no idea what was happening in the family that made him eat too much. Before he could realize, he was more than 100kgs.
When the family bounced back, they wanted Dube to continue his training. At 19, he began right from the basics. Thankfully, he had a trainer in his father. Dube would train for hours be it night or day. Slowly, he got back in shape, and that was the first step.
Now, restarting cricket at 19 is difficult and being in a place like Mumbai where everyone is into the game, coaching classes were out of the question.
Dube’s father decided to take things on his hand, allowed Dube to practice the game for straight eight hours every single day. Dube soon caught up.
He became a regular in club cricket. He represented Karnataka Sporting Club initially and created a name for himself. His six-hitting ability was popular among the locals. Mitsui Shoji T20 League helped him to reach Mumbai U-23 team. Chandrakant Pandit saw Dube’s technique and power-hitting ability during the T20 League and was selected for Mumbai’s Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 2016 followed by Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2017.
He scored a brilliant ton in his debut game in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Soon, he made it to the Ranji Trophy team in December 2017.
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Dube’s best performance with the Indian team came against West Indies where he scored 54 from just 30 deliveries. With the ball, his 3-wicket haul against Bangladesh so far is the best.
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There is no doubt that Dube is one of the most talented youngsters in the country. Hopefully, he will come up with something big very soon.
