The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are set to face arch-rivals Mumbai Indians (MI) at the iconic Wankhede Stadium on Thursday, April 23. Ahead of the high-voltage clash, former CSK spinner Ravichandran Ashwin urged the Ruturaj Gaikwad-led side not to use Shivam Dube as a finisher.
Dube has often been sent into bat at the back end of CSK’s innings this season. Despite averaging 41 and striking at 150, the southpaw hasn’t been able to provide the flourish a couple of times in the death overs.
Ashwin opined that Dube is not a proper finisher and the Men in Yellow will be better served if they have him and Dewald Brevis batting through the middle overs, looking to finish games earlier instead of taking it deep. For Thursday’s game against Mumbai, Ashwin mentioned that Dube needs to be at the crease when Mitchell Santner bowls most of his overs.
“Dube is not a finisher. In the Indian team, he batted in the lower middle-order in the games they did not use against spin. He played a support role to Hardik Pandya in the end overs. But he is not your bonafide finisher. He can grow into that role as a finisher, but as of now, he isn’t,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
“Instead, CSK should use him and Brevis to finish the match earlier. But when you don’t use him in that role and play him as a finisher, it looks out of place. Dube is batting very well, and in this particular game, he should be playing a vast majority of Santner’s overs,” he added.
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Coming to Brevis, the South African prodigy missed the first three games for CSK this season due to a side strain injury. In the three matches he has played so far, he has scored 41 runs at an average of 20.50 and a strike rate of 124.25. He is way more talented than these numbers suggest, and CSK could unlock his full potential by allowing him to bat in the top five.
