IPL 2022: Shivam Dube turns from villain to hero for Chennai Super Kings, all in a week's time

Shivam Dube became the villain for Chennai Super Kings fans. He had conceded 25 runs in the 19th over and CSK failed to protect 210 after being in the driving seat for 38 overs. Had it been some other franchise, the pressure would have increased on Dube. But not when it's CSK. Rather, the team management internally assessed that it was a mistake on their part to give the 19th over to Dube and started treating him purely as a batsman.

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Shivam Dube and Robin Uthappa are not the big-ticket superstars of this CSK team, but they showed that they can turn it on when required. In 12.1 overs, they put up 165 runs, which helped CSK blaze away to 216/4 and notch up their first win of the season after four straight losses. While Uthappa (88

The results came quick - a quickfire half-century against Punjab Kings was followed by a match-winning 95* against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Suddenly, the 28-year-old Mumbai boy is in the centre of conversation, and CSK are insisting that they picked him knowing about his abilities. "Generally MS Dhoni hits the biggest sixes in practice. But in the practice camp at Surat, Shivam's sixes were often comfortably 20-30 metres bigger than Dhoni's. Shivam was breaking glass panes in the fourth tier of the Surat stadium and we knew we had a gem," a CSK source told TOI. Dube's ability to hit big, though, is not unknown. He had once hit senior leggie Pravin Tambe for five consecutive sixes in Mumbai T20 game at the same venue where he teed off on Tuesday. A similar feat followed in Ranji Trophy too which prompted RCB to pick him up at the auction. But playing under Virat Kohli,