IPL 2024: Where To Bowl To Shivam Dube? The Bouncer Is No Longer A Threat For The Chennai Super Kings' Star

Since joining the Chennai Super Kings in 2022, Shivam Dube has been Chennai's trump card with the bat. Having batted out of position at Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Rajasthan Royals, Chennai have used him at No. 4 & 5 to take down spinners. In two matches this IPL season, he has already smashed 6 sixes. This incredible six-hitting ability, particularly during the middle overs when opposing teams attempt to bowl quiet overs with spinners, has made Dube a fan favourite at Chepauk. With two bouncers allowed per over in the IPL 2024 season, Dube was among the batters whose comfort levels against pacers were bound to be tested. He struggled with short balls last season but now has two reliable options. One is where he keeps the ball down by rolling his wrists, and another is where he stands tall and uses his power to clear the fence, as in the case of Spencer Johnson.

Bouncer no longer a threat to CSK's Shivam Dube

Shivam Dube's tall frame, big reach, and brute power have recently made him one of the elite IPL six-hitters. Since 2022, only Jos Buttler (59) has hit more sixes than his 57, while Andre Russell and Liam Livingstone are level with him. Shivam Dube is vulnerable to fast bowling, mainly to express pace. CSK has found a way to limit his limitations by deploying him in the middle overs, where most teams tend not to bowl too many overs of extreme pace. 

However, the new two-bouncer-per-over rule has presented him with a different challenge this IPL season. Soon after Dube had walked out to bat in the season-opener against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Faf du Plessis had matched Alzarri Joseph up with him. Even Cameron Green dug the ball into the pitch and got it to climb towards Dube's throat. Dube just about survived that short-ball burst from Joseph and saw CSK home.

Australian fast bowler Spencer Johnson, who had previously hit Russell with a nasty bouncer last month, attempted to unnerve Dube with a similar delivery on Tuesday. But Dube was ready for it, swivelling quickly on the back foot and hooking a shoulder-high delivery over long leg for six. At the other end, Mohit Sharma tested him with the slower short ball, but Dube coolly rode the bounce and steered it down between short fine leg and deep square leg for four runs.

"Definitely, I've worked in that way, and it's helping me. I know they will bowl short balls at me, [but] I'm ready for that. They [CSK team management] want me to do the same thing that I did today. They want me to go at a higher strike rate against the bowlers, so I'm trying that," Dube said after winning the Player-of-the-match award.

Shivam Dube scored 23 runs off 13 short-length balls from seamers against Gujarat Titans on Tuesday. He smashed 51 runs off 23 balls with a strike rate of 221. Until two years ago, Dube would either move out of the bouncer's way or defend himself. He has now levelled up to the extent that he has taken an attacking approach against the bouncer. The CSK batting coach, Michael Hussey, credited Dube for identifying his weakness and working on it during the off-season.

"Now, the bowlers are still coming in with the same plan, but he's been able to score off it as well, and he's been able to find boundaries if he gets into the right position as well. So that's a testament to the work that he's put in behind the scenes and being ready for their plans. And now it's, you know, back on the bowlers. What are they going to do? Now, are they going to continue with this plan, or will they go away from that? And try something else? We'll have to wait and see, but I think a lot of credit needs to go to Dube for the amount of work that he's put in against that particular ball," Hussey said at his post-match press conference.

Over the past six months, Dube has lit the international stage on fire with successive half-centuries against Afghanistan in January in T20Is. Whether he keeps his place is a question BCCI will need to answer as India prepares for the T20 World Cup 2024, starting on June 1 in the USA and the Caribbean. The defending champions take on Delhi Capitals at their adopted home, Dr Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA–VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, on Sunday, March 31.