IPL 2025: Dubey a very clever bowler, very pleased with his performances, says Vettori

New Delhi, May 26 (IANS) Though left-arm spin bowling all-rounder Harsh Dubey came in as a late replacement player for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in IPL 2025, his performances in three appearances left head coach Daniel Vettori impressed, with the legendary New Zealand tweaker describing the youngster as a ‘very clever bowler’.

In SRH’s mammoth 110-run win over Kolkata Knight Riders at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Dubey was impressive in extracting turn and varying his pace on a flat pitch to dismiss Rinku Singh, Andre Russell and Ramandeep Singh and grab 3-34 in his four overs. That strong spell came on the back of Dubey dismissing Mitchell Marsh and Virat Kohli in his first two IPL games.

The 2025 has been a breakthrough year for Dubey - breaking the record for the most wickets taken in a Ranji Trophy season when he picked up 69 scalps in Vidarbha's run to winning the 2024/25 championship, and was also adjudged as the Player of the Tournament. Dubey is also in India ‘A’ squad for the tour of England, starting on May 30.

“Look, I think we're very pleased with what he's done since he's come into the team. He's obviously a very clever bowler, understands conditions well, understands how he needs to bowl and can mix it up, and I suppose we were desperate for that little bit of control, and he's been able to do that in all three games that he's played so far.”

“The great thing for him is between now and the next IPL he's going to play a lot of cricket, whether it's for India A or his domestic team, there's going to be a huge amount of opportunities for him. So we believe he can grow as a bowler and also as a batter, because the batting part of it was a big part of our decision-making too,” said Vettori in the post-match press conference.

With SRH ending their season on a high, it also brought an end to a nightmarish campaign for Nitish Kumar Reddy. The batting all-rounder was one of the finds for SRH in their runners-up finish in IPL 2024 - smacking 303 runs and picking three wickets with his seam bowling.

But in IPL 2025, where he entered after recovering from a side strain, Reddy struggled big time – scoring only 182 runs in 11 innings and bowling just thrice. It also didn’t help Reddy that his batting position also fluctuated in the season.

“He brought a side-strain into the tournament, which obviously he had throughout. It was the reason why he missed a lot of cricket prior to that, and then it was just a slow, meticulous build-up. He was ready just before the tournament break, so we anticipated him bowling maybe the last five to six games, which was what happened, so it was purely down to injury.”

“I mean, it's always tricky, that role, the number four or five position is one of the most difficult in IPL, and he's always normally coming in on the back of that aggressive style. But we know that Nitish, when he's at his best, gives himself a chance, builds his innings and then can capitalise at the end against pace and spin, so I think it's just one of those seasons that's a little bit of a learning for him, but he's too good a player not to bounce back,” added Vettori.

He also signed off by saying that lack of playing T20 cricket did play a part in Mohammed Shami having a below-par showing in IPL 2025. Shami, who has not been picked for the upcoming five-match Test series against England due to fitness issues and insufficient bowling loads, picked just six wickets in nine games for SRH at an economy rate of 11.23.

“It is a long time ago that he played T20 cricket, so it always takes a little bit to acclimate back into it, and obviously the game has progressed very quickly over those 18 months since the last time he played for GT, when he was a Purple Cat winner.”

“So I just think the challenge is of remaining consistent for him, I think that's where he's at his best when he hits that length, and probably just wasn't at that metronomical best that we've seen in the past.”

“That's partly due to a long layoff, that's partly the game, and I know that he worked exceptionally hard and he was desperate to do well. But this just wasn't quite his season, but there's no reason why he can't bounce back because of the quality of the bowler that he is,” he concluded.

--IANS

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