“When The Dust Settles...”: Shivam Dube’s impactful innings in the T20 World Cup final gets reviewed

The high of the T20 World Cup 2024 is still not over, people are still jumping and dancing and it's obvious as we got the title of world champions after a decade. And if we do a little scrutiny India won an ICC tournament after 11 years, won a World Championship after 13 years and it took us 17 years to get back the title of T20 World Champions. The results of this ICC final was different for Indian fans as after losing 5 ICC finals, we finally crossed the line of victory. 

The whole team contributed in this victory as Virat Kohli scored a half-century, Axar Patel proved his mettle as a batsman, Bumrah produced a magical spell in the death overs, Arshdeep took crucial wickets, and the catch of Surya Kumar Yadav. But amidst all of this one performance that went unnoticed which reminded the fans of the 2007 T20 World Cup. In the finals of 2007 T20 WC finals, everyone remembered the 75 runs of Gautam Gambhir, 3-wicket spell of Irfan Pathan but forgot an important knock of 30 runs by rookie Rohit Sharma, who was playing his first big tournament. 

And this time , Shivam Dube who played a quickfire knock of 27 runs in 16 balls with 3 fours and 1 six, didn't get that much recognition. The low-scoring innings shifted the momentum in India’s favour in those last overs. But what a world cup it turned out to be for Shivam Dube, from being criticised and doubted for the selection to deliver when it mattered the most. 

Fans are as emotional as the team players and in that trolling becomes inevitable. Here are some of the posts on X. 

India started their campaign by playing Ireland at New York and Dube couldn’t do much and ended the innings without opening his account. In the second match against the arch rivals Pakistan he scored 3 runs in 9 balls, and that’s when the doubts started and fans were demanding him being on the bench and Rinku Singh in the squad. 

But the tables turned when he played an innings of 31 runs against the USA where stalwarts like Rohit and Virat failed to make it big. On that tricky pitch, a calm and composed Shivam took the team over the crossline with Suryakumar Yadav. But again in the Super Eights against Afghanistan Dube got a good start but failed to convert it into a big one. In the second match of Super Eights, he scored 38 in 24 deliveries that inning and his partnership with Hardik Pandya changed the end result of the game. 

The other two games were like a rollercoaster for him as against Australia he scored 28 runs and in the semi-finals against England, he scored a golden duck. What favoured Shivam Dube was the trust of his captain and management as they took him in playing eleven of T20 World Cup finals. And Dube delivered and he delivered well by scoring 27 off 16 with 3 fours and 1 six and didn’t let India lose its momentum after losing Virat Kohli’s wicket. But at the end the hard work paid off and fans in the finals realised the importance of his small innings. Virat's innings received mixed reactions from the fans as some considered it sensible and some said it was a little slow, but Dube played a little differently and make the ball touch the boundary rope 3 times and once going above of it. 

Here’s how user’s reacted on his performance:

The man of the match of 2007 T20 World Cup, Irfan Pathan praised the innings and said, “Axar patel and Shivam Dube’s innings we can’t forget. Well done boys.”

The knock silenced the critics and he proved that he can perform in a pressure situation on a big platform.