IND vs IRE: "The same Shivam Dube hasn't been seen" - Aakash Chopra expresses his concern over batter's form

Team India played their only warm-up game ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 on Saturday (June 1) when they locked horns against Bangladesh in New York.

The Rohit Sharma-led side registered a comfortable victory as they thrashed Bangladesh by 60 runs. Batting first, India posted a big total of 182 for 5 in the allotted 20 overs with Rishabh Pant scoring a fifty. The wicketkeeper-batsman scored 53 runs off 32 balls including four fours and as many sixes. Suryakumar Yadav (31) and Hardik Pandya (40*) played crucial knocks as well.

In reply, Bangladesh finished their innings on 122 for 9. Arshdeep Singh gave India a flying start by dismissing Soumya Sarkar and Litton Das inside the third over and the Bangla Tigers just could not recover from those early setbacks. At one stage, Bangladesh were reeling at 41 for 5 before Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah took the score past the 100-run mark.

Aakash Chopra expresses concern:

The win will definitely boost India's confidence as they will be looking to start their campaign in the World Cup on a good note. However, former India opener Aakash Chopra has expressed his concerns over a couple of players' form ahead of the main event.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra said that he is worried by Shivam Dube's form with the bat. The allrounder failed to make an impact with the bat and was out for 14 off 16 balls. The former cricketer-turned-commentator also expressed his reservations over Ravindra Jadeja's abilities as a finisher. Jadeja played six balls in the game and managed to score only 4 runs.

"One thing was slightly negative. We shouldn't say negative but we expected a little better. Shivam Dube's bat wasn't striking the ball, which is not a good thing. Since Shivam Dube made two successive zeroes, the same Shivam Dube hasn't been seen," said Chopra.

"You want him to be in form because the number at which he is going to bat, he won't get the time to find form. In my opinion, there is a question mark whether Ravindra Jadeja can play the finisher's role. So that could be a slight problem. My main concern will be Jadeja's batting form and Shivam Dube's form," he added.

Team India are drawn in Group A along with Pakistan, Ireland, USA and Canada. They will open their campaign against Ireland on June 5.