The night Tilak and Dube went from promise to performance

Shivam Dube is a T20 World Cup winner. But the impact of his cameo - a 16-ball 27 - in the final against South Africa in Barbados was lost amid the euphoria of that Suryakumar Yadav catch and the retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, and Ravindra Jadeja soon after.

He had been picked to play a certain role: destroy spin in the middle overs. Because, between January 2023 and April 2024, Dube's numbers were elite. He had hit 367 runs in 26 innings at a strike rate of 166 while being dismissed just five times. But after that, his numbers began to drop alarmingly. Between May 2024 and midway through the Asia Cup, the strike rate had dropped significantly, to 120, while he had been dismissed 13 times.

Also, hardly bowling in IPL 2025 because of the Impact Player rule didn't help his cause. Dube needed big performances at the Asia Cup.

But his three innings leading into Sunday had brought him only 17 runs. And then he was faced with his toughest job yet: a quad injury to Hardik Pandya needed him to step in as a frontline bowler after the team chose batting insurance in the form of Rinku Singh ahead of an extra bowler in Arshdeep Singh. Then Suryakumar handed him the new ball. He didn't do badly - 3-0-23-0 was respectable enough.

Set 147 to win, Dube wouldn't have known that his biggest contribution was to come yet. He played his part with a match-defining 33 off 22 balls, which was arguably at par with, if not better than, his Barbados cameo.

Tilak Varma's twin hundreds in South Africa last November ought to have put to rest any doubts over his ability as a top-order batter. But when his strike rates were questioned at IPL 2025, and he was even retired out on one occasion, it seemed like a mini setback.

A county stint in England brought the confidence back leading into the Asia Cup. And through scores of 31, 29, 30*, 5 and 49*, he had shown sparks of that old consistency. Yet, there was a sense that the one defining knock hadn't come.

On Sunday, in Round Three against Pakistan - in a final, no less - with India's top order having floundered and the scoreboard reading 20 for 3, there was that defining knock, an unbeaten 53-ball 69 that helped India get past the wobble to blaze past the finish line.

Between the end of the IPL and the start of the Asia Cup, Dube had prioritised fitness to help improve his pace. He also worked on his variations, while also fine-tuning several facets of his batting. His specific target areas were to get better against spin and be effective against high-pace, short-pitched bowling. Essentially, it was a proper reboot.

Last week against Bangladesh, the spin-basher aspect of his game was tested when he was promoted to No. 3 to be a good match-up against left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed and legspinner Rishad Hossain. But when he was out for 2 off 3, miscuing a googly to long-off, there was a sense he had missed out again.

On Sunday, Dube was held back. To be a finisher, rather than an enforcer.

India had relied all tournament on Abhishek Sharma's big starts that covered for the underwhelming returns from Shubman Gill and Suryakumar.

In the final, Abhishek was out in the second over, leading to a proper top-order meltdown.

Dube had a job to do when he walked out with the side needing 70 off 46. It was the kind of situation where a cameo would only do so much, but a false shot could prove catastrophic. He needed to be the consolidator and the finisher.

And so he stood, facing up to scoreboard pressure, the pressure of the occasion and the charged setting, and the pressure of having to prove himself again.

Dube scratched around early - three off five balls - and then nearly ran out Tilak before something clicked. Haris Rauf's high pace and width allowed him to flick a switch as he slapped the bowler through the covers to break the shackles. Suddenly, the shoulders loosened and he was away.

It helped that Tilak managed to accelerate too. Getting 47 off 30 wasn't going to be a cakewalk, but Dube had at least got his eye in. And the moment Abrar Ahmed bowled length into him, the elite spin-hitter from 2023 took over. Dube unlocked the six-hitter he has always been known to be, muscling one with the spin over deep midwicket.

When Rauf returned, his famed bat-swing and long levers helped make sweet connection with a low full toss as he clobbered another over deep midwicket to bring the equation down to 17 off 12.

Every time India needed a big hit, he provided one to ease the pressure on Tilak. Dube was reasserting himself in the role he had been picked for. But when he fell, caught at long-off, with India needing ten off six balls, he was distraught.

Sat on the edge of the steps to the dressing room, face looking down as his forehead rested on the bat handle, Dube wasn't making eye contact with those around him.

Two balls into the final over, when Tilak walloped Rauf over deep square for six, Dube was still distraught, running through the what-ifs possibly. It wasn't until Rinku hit the winning runs that the pent-up energy burst forth - there was wild fist-pumping, high-fives, back slaps. Dube was back on his feet.

He hared out of the dressing room, not particularly running in any one direction - the elation was visible.

Dube's relief was as palpable as Tilak's joy at having seen this chase through, but he was nearly not the man for India on the night.

In the 14th over, after he had done the hard yards and given himself, and India, a chance to breathe, he lay flat on his stomach, scrambling every possible inch he could with his long reach to make the crease with a full-length dive.

As the dust off the turf flew into his face, he didn't want to look up the replays on the big screen. Tilak might have thought that his bat had dangled in the air briefly before he was inside the crease. Unaware, of course, that there was a minuscule portion of his blade that was in safety zone.

It helped that Mohammad Haris may have been a tad late to break the stumps. Tilak had a second chance. He had been on a near run-a-ball 37 at that point, but with the equation down to 64 off 36, he needed to change gears.

That started in the following over, when he backed away to first slap Rauf past mid-off for four, and then play a nonchalant pick-up flick to send the ball over deep-backward square-leg - a shot that was all hands and Rauf's pace. That 17-run over brought it down to 47 off 30.

This was when Dube began to feed off Tilak's form. But with Dube gone, with an over left, it was all left to Tilak. When he hit the second ball - a slower delivery on a length - off Rauf deep into the stands at backward square-leg with a ferocious pull, Gautam Gambhir's stoic expression changed to full-blown fire, the coach thumping the desk in front of him wildly.

And when the job was done, Tilak went on a celebratory run, towards the dugout - pointing to the India crest, saluting the fans and the dressing room... And just like that, any inkling of doubt had gone far away. He was India's hero on the night, who had unlocked the finisher in him, in the most extreme pressure, of the kind he hadn't faced in international cricket until that point.

For Dube, it was a night that yet again served as a reminder of what he could still bring to this team. With the ball in the powerplay and with the bat under pressure. For Tilak, it was the night he stopped being the promising kid and became the man for the big occasion.