Salman Butt questions Shivam Dube's ODI selection, demands Suryakumar Yadav's return from Gautam Gambhir

Former Pakistan opener Salman Butt has lashed out at Shivam Dube for his below-par performance in the second ODI against Sri Lanka at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo. Dube came in at No. 4 on a pitch which was assisting the spinners.

But the left-handed batter was undone by a brilliant delivery from legspinner Jeffrey Vandersay who pitched the ball outside off-stump and got the ball to spin back and hit Dube's pads in front of his stumps. The umpire had no hesitation in raising the finger as Dube was dismissed for a fourth ball duck.

Shivam Dube came in to bat at No. 8 in the first ODI. His batting slot was hugely criticized at that time as experts wanted him to bat higher up the order. Batting at No. 8, Dube had scored 25 off 24 balls and was dismissed on the penultimate ball of the match when India needed just 1 run to win. In the end, the match ended in a thrilling tie.

Also read: "Jeffrey Vandersay took 6 wickets" - Kuldeep Yadav declared inferior to 34-year-old Sri Lankan by ex-India star

Salman Butt questions Shivam Dube's place in India's ODI team

While speaking on his YouTube channel, Salman Butt reckoned that India needs to re-think its strategy against spin bowling. Butt even suggested that Suryakumar Yadav could have been an option in place of Dube as he was in brilliant form in the T20I series. He also claimed that Suryakumar is a better fielder than Dube and can be more consistent than him.

"On spinning tracks, India will have to re-think their strategy. Maybe they can have Suryakumar Yadav in the team because I don't think that (Shivam) Dube is better than him in terms of batting and fielding. I don't know how he made it to the ODI side. I am not aware of his domestic stats," Butt said

"Although Suryakumar Yadav's ODI record is not great, but the kind of batting that he is doing, he should have been in the ODI side. He was in form and recently scored runs in Sri Lanka. His captaincy career also started on a brighter note. He is an outstanding fielder as well," he added.

"Shivam Dube is very late off the blocks" - Salman Butt

The former Pakistan batter further added that Dube is not a naturally athletic fielder and is quite late off the blocks. He believes that India has some fit and better options than him who are waiting in the queue.

"Shivam Dube is very late off the blocks in terms of fielding and is not very agile. India has some of the brilliant and fit options in terms of batting. But if someone keeps playing, he will score one or two good innings of 40-50 runs. So, what I've seen of him so far, he has not been very consistent and everyone has seen this. He is somebody who is not on the fitter side and hasn't been consistent," Butt claimed.

Shivam Dube was a part of India's T20 World Cup 2024-winning team. He played in every match of the tournament, however, he didn't have a great tournament personally. On pace-friendly conditions in the USA, Dube struggled to score runs. As the tournament went to the West Indies, Dube got back his timing and played some crucial innings. His 27 off 16 balls in the final against South Africa proved to be vital in the end.

In the T20I series against Sri Lanka recently, Dube played just one match and scored 13 runs. With Hardik Pandya not available for the ODI series, Dube was given a chance. Before this series, he had played just one ODI way back in 2019.