On his return to the T20I set-up, Shivam Dube played a valuable knock of 53 runs off 34 deliveries to help India post 181 runs on the board in the fourth T20I against England in Pune. After the hosts were reduced to 12/3, the all-rounder took charge and built crucial partnerships with Rinku Singh and later Hardik Pandya to help his team post a defendable total on board.
Meanwhile, on the penultimate delivery of the first innings, Jamie Overton’s bouncer hit Dube’s helmet and the team doctors attended him immediately. After a quick concussion check, the cricketer was allowed to continue to play the final delivery. However, during the innings break, Dube complained of a mild headache symptom, as bowling coach Morne Morkel later confirmed and following which, India named Harshit Rana as his concussion substitute.
A pacer replacing a batting all-rounder raised speculations as former cricketers Kevin Pietersen and Nick Knight weren’t happy with the move in the commentary box. After the game, England captain Jos Buttler also called out match referee Javagal Srinath for allowing the hosts to name Rana as Dube’s sub. He noted that it wasn’t a ‘like-for-like replacement’ and added that the visiting team wasn’t consulted before a decision was made.
“It is not a like-for-like replacement. We don't agree with that. Either Shivam Dube has put on about 25mph with the ball or Harshit has really improved his batting. It's part of the game and we really should have gone on to win the match, but we disagree with the decision,” Buttler said in the post-match press conference.
“There was no consultation [with us]. That's something I was thinking as I came out to bat - who is Harshit on for? They said he is a concussion replacement, which I obviously disagreed with. It is not a like-for-like replacement. They said that the match referee had made the decision. We had no say in it or any part of it. But we'll ask Javagal [Srinath] some questions just to get some clarity around it,” he added.
India had Ramandeep Singh as one of the options for replacing Dube. He even fielded when Varun Chakravarthy was out of action for a while. On the other hand, Morkel told the press after the game that India put Rana’s name as Dube’s sub and the match referee accepted that and the matter ended there for the team.