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Veteran India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has been impressed by Shivam Dube’s emergence, backing him for a place in the squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup. During the recently-concluded T20I series against Afghanistan, Dube smashed half-centuries in back-to-back games to help India sweep the bilateral 3-0. He was also impressive with the bowl, despite taking just two wickets. Impressed with Dube’s performance in the series, Ashwin feels the all-rounder can make a difference at the T20 World Cup in West Indies, where the conditions are similar to that of Chepauk.

“Hardik Pandya is a crucial member of this Indian team. However, the emergence of Shivam Dube… Just like how we divide eras into Before Christ and After Christ, we can divide his career into ‘before CSK’ and ‘after CSK’. In West Indies conditions, which are almost CSK conditions, he is a spin-hitting monster,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

Ashwin also labelled Dube as the lite version of legendary India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, mainly because of his height and reach.

“I can proudly call him ‘Yuvraj Singh lite’ package. There are so many factoids about Yuvraj Singh that I could see in his game – the downswing, the height and the reach. I am not saying that he is like Yuvraj Singh, just saying he reminds me a lot of him. The beauty here is that he hits spin straight down the ground,” he added.

Ashwin was also impressed by Dube’s bowling, saying that the player has added more variations to his arsenal.

“When Suryakumar Yadav is playing at one end, a team might try to suppress him by playing a left-arm spinner. When Shivam Dube is that the other end at this point, this is a great combination to have. The options that he gives to the team are tremendous. He can bowl two overs of his quota too. He has proved that he can bowl cutters and has developed a back-of-the-hand slower delivery as well. It has just added worth in gold going into this World Cup,” Ashwin signed off.