The social media is abuzz over the IPL broadcaster’s claim that noise levels hit the roof when MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings are on song. If so, their serial six-hitter Shivam Dube is making sure the decibel level stays consistently high.

When Mumbai player Dube walks out on to his home turf at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday, in CSK’s yellow for IPL’s classic contest against fellow five-time winners Mumbai Indians, fan loyalties could be tested considering their still testy relationship with MI skipper Hardik Pandya.

Dube versus Hardik could still be only an insignificant subplot a fortnight before the national selectors meet to finalise India’s squad of 15 for the T20 World Cup.

The left-handed batting all-rounder first announced himself as an understudy to Hardik for India with power-packed fifty against West Indies in a T20I at Thiruvananthapuram in 2019. But it’s only in the past twelve months that Dube’s USP of decimating spin has been uncovered by CSK. He was also impressive in the Afghanistan T20Is before IPL.