Being put in to bat first in the first game of IPL 2024 in Dharamshala, CSK suffered a mini-collapse in the middle overs. Leg-spinner Rahul Chahar came on to bowl in the eighth over and picked two wickets off his first two balls, the second of which happened to be Shivam Dube’s.

Dube had forced his way into India’s T20 World Cup squad recently ahead of Rinku Singh due to his middle-overs hitting prowess. He had been in great form leading up to the squad announcement, having scored 350 runs in the first nine games at a strike rate of 172.

However, in a bizarre stroke of luck, he has now been dismissed for two golden ducks in the two matches CSK have played since the announcement on April 30 – coincidentally both against Punjab Kings.

In the last match, in Chennai, Dube was lbw when he attempted a slog sweep off his first ball against Harpreet Brar. Today (May 5), he was out caught behind trying to late cut a short ball by Chahar.

What makes this sequence of golden ducks even stranger is that before these, he had never been out first ball in his IPL career and had been out for a duck only once in 56 innings.

Shivam Dube records second consecutive golden duck after T20 WC squad announcement.#ShivamDube #CSK #PBKSvsCSK #IPL2024 #Cricket pic.twitter.com/KooYVO0Yhn

— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) May 5, 2024

Everything has not been dark and gloomy though.

Dube was given the ball in CSK’s home game against Punjab, their first after India’s squad announcement, and he ended up picking a wicket with his second ball – his first IPL wicket since 2020.

That would bode well both for CSK as well as India, who are looking at his bowling abilities as well for the T20 World Cup. But for now, focus will be on how soon he gets back his batting form, the primary skill for which he was picked.