At the 2024 IPL auction, Rajasthan Royals nearly emptied their purse on Shubham Dubey, the uncapped 29-year-old Vidarbha batter.
Rajasthan Royals participated in the IPL 2024 auction with a prize money of Rs 14.5 million. They made their first acquisition of the day from Rovman Powell for Rs 7.4 billion, netting them Rs 7.1 billion.
They waited until the batter ran out of caps to make the next purchase. Vidarbha batsman Shubham Dubey, who has more years (29) than professional cricket matches (20 Twenty20, List A 8), was the first name in the set for Rs 20 million.
When Delhi Capitals started making offers, Rajasthan reacted quickly. Both teams continued to raise the bar, perhaps because Dubey participated in trials for both teams. Both teams did not give up until Delhi signed him for Rs 58 crore, a whopping 29 times his base price.
Dubey is playing for Vidarbha, which reached the quarter-finals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in the 2023-24 season. Although he played for the U23 team, his first time playing for the senior national team was in the 2021/22 season, which was his regular debut season at the age of 27.
The following season, Vidarbha reached the semi-finals, but there was little in Dubey’s performance (180 runs in 8 innings, strike rate 122) to suggest anything great.
It wasn’t until the 2023/24 season that he found his element. Vidarbha lost to Delhi in the quarter-finals, but by then he had already established himself as a death-over hitter. In his seven innings he scored 221 runs and had a strike rate of 187, but every 39 balls he was dismissed once.
During the entire season, only Abhishek Sharma had a higher strike rate and scored more runs than Dubey. He hit 18 sixes in his 19.4 overs. In other words, in almost every over he hit a six. Adding up the 10 fours, the margin rate is 4 balls to 1 he. The fact that he hit far more sixes than his fours was probably another advantage for him.
Dubey was soon nominated for his first ever Vijay Hazare Trophy. Here too he scored 159 runs at a strike rate of 90 at 31.80 and helped Vidarbha reach the quarter-finals.
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