IND vs WI | Harbhajan Singh backs Shivam Dube to come good for India
Harbhajan Singh believes that the criticism of Shivam Dube has been harsh and that he deserves consistent chances to to produce good performances. Harbhajan, like his teammate Yuvraj, was also an important part of India's inaugural T20 World Cup Triumph in 2007 and 50-over World Cup Triumph in 2011.
India went into the 2019 World Cup with uncertainty over the number four spot and who really was India's first-choice number four. That, in the end, came back to haunt them as the Indian batting faltered against New Zealand in the semifinals and crashed out of the World Cup. Harbhajan Singh believes that something like that should not happen again and that the team must be set well before the start of the T20 World Cup in Australia next year.
"The team should be set and players should know that they are playing the World Cup, it shouldn't happen that there is any doubt whether one will get a place," said Harbhajan during a session of 'Agenda Aaj Tak'.
"They should be sure about their place and role in the team. The more clarity they have it would be better for India's preparation," he further added.
Having impressed in the T20 series versus West Indies and with India's first-choice all-rounder Hardik Pandya still recovering from injury, Shivam Dube made his ODI debut against the West Indies at Chennai and was expected to fill in for the role of the fifth bowler with Kedar Jadhav, just the way Hardik did. However, he proved to be very expensive as he gave away 68 runs in 7.5 overs and West Indies won the game very easily in the end. Harbhajan though believes that it is unfair to criticize Dube just after one match and he too like Yuvraj believes that Dube must be backed more with consistent chances in order to get the best out of him.
"There was a lot of criticism of Shivam Dube. He bowled six overs (7.5 overs) but we must have done something wrong in the rest of the overs. The deserving players should get enough time to prove themselves... like other players are getting 15 chances, he should also get that chance," Harbhajan stated.