1 week ago
11
ARTICLE AD BOX
3 min readFeb 25, 2026 09:34 PM IST
India's Shivam Dube, left, listens to captain Suryakumar Yadav as they celebrate the wicket of Netherlands' Colin Ackermann during the T20 World Cup cricket match between India and Netherlands in Ahmedabad, India, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
While the Indian team management went with Washington Sundar and dropped vice-captain Washington Sundar for their Super 8 match against South Africa at Ahmedabad in the T20 World Cup, a match which the team lost by 76 runs, Indian captain Surya Kumar Yadav used six bowlers in the match with all-rounder Shivam Dube only bowling two overs and conceding 32 runs and taking the wicket of Dewald Brevis. Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif shared how he sees Dube as a ‘batter’ and not an ‘all-rounder’ and with India set to face West Indies later in the Super 8, the all-rounder can even concede four sixes in an over against West Indies.
“With the field and his plan to bowl wide to (Dewald)Brevis, Dube showed that he wanted to be very defensive. Nobody bowls defensively in the 10th over. You looked to attack and try to take a wicket at that time. According to me, Dube is a batter; he is not an all-rounder. We don’t need an all-rounder who bowls at 120 kph. He might take an odd wicket but will always go for runs. He can even concede four sixes in an over against West Indies,” Kaif said on his Youtube channel.
Unbeaten in the tournament’s group stage, the Surya Kumar Yadav led Indian team suffered their first defeat of the tournament at the hands of Aiden Makram led South Africa in their first Group 2 Super 8 encounter last Sunday. While Indian opener Ishan Kishan fell into first over during the chase of 188 runs, the other Indian opener Abhishek Sharma played a 12-ball knock of 15 runs after three ducks in the group stage of the tournament. Chasing the target, Indian were bundled out for a total of 111 in 18.5 overs and now need to win their remaining matches against Zimbabwe and West Indies in the Super 8 stage to keep their hopes alive for the semi-finals of the marquee event. The Indian XI against South Africa had six left-handed batsmen and Kaif suggested that the Indian team should get wicket-keeper batsman Sanju Samson in the Xi to get the right-left combination rather than sending all-rounder Hardik Pandya at the number five for the left-right combination.
“There should be a balance in everything. We have gone overboard with lefties, where there are six left-handed batters in the top eight. Hardik is coming at No. 5 for the left-right combination. If you think it could be your winning formula, make a squad keeping that in mind. Bring in Sanju to get that left-right combination,” Kaif added.
Indian captain Surya Kumar Yadav has spoken about how the team could have batted better during the run-chase. “We were always in the game when we started. Bowled really well in the beginning. From 7-15, they batted really well and then we came back. Bowled really well but could have batted better. Sometimes, you have to think you cannot win the game in the power play but you can lose it. Did not have the partnerships we needed. Part of the game. We will learn from it. Sit back and bounce back,” Yadav had said after the loss.
English (US) ·