Who is Shubham Dubey? 5 interesting facts about Rajasthan Royals' 5.8 crore signing in IPL 2024 Auction

Amid all the hype around big-money overseas purchases by teams at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 player auction, Rajasthan Royals (RR) went out for a rather unknown commodity in Shubham Dubey.

The inaugural champions splashed a fee of ₹5.80 crore to acquire the services of Dubey, who plays domestic cricket for Vidharbha.

Set his base price at ₹20 lakhs, Dubey garnered interest from two franchises, Rajasthan and Delhi Capitals (DC). The two franchises went into a bidding war and took the price upwards of ₹5 crores. Delhi's last bid was for ₹5.60 crore before Rajasthan won the bidding war at ₹5.80 crore.

Dubey proved to be Rajasthan's second signing at the mini-auction after they bought Rovman Powell for ₹7.60 crore to start the proceedings.

With Dubey earning a massive IPL contract, let's take a look at five interesting facts about the latest Rajasthan Royals' acquisition at the lPL 2024 auction.

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#1 Dubey had a brilliant Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2023

India's most prestigious domestic T20 tournament, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy saw Shubham Dubey in beast mode.

Batting at the lower-middle order for his side Vidharbha, Dubey left no stone unturned to have an impact and played some brilliant innings throughout the tournament.

Batting seven times in the tournament, Dubey struck 221 runs at an immaculate average and strike rate of 73.66 and 187.29, respectively. He even played a stupendous innings of 58* from just 20 balls against Bengal and helped his side chase down 213 with 13 balls to spare.

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#2 He scored 89 off 44 during the Guwahati Premier League 2023

Shubham Dubey has been in excellent form of late. He represented 91 Yard Club at the Guwahati Premier League this season and had a great campaign.

In one of the league games against Nabajyoti Club, Dubey hit 89 runs off only 44 balls to help his side win the game by 26 runs. He hammered five fours and seven sixes during that innings.

In a total of 12 innings during the campaign, Dubey amassed 242 runs at a strike rate of 132.22 while batting at No. 4.

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#3 He is yet to make his first-class debut

The 29-year-old is a crucial player for Vidharbha in the shortest format. However, he is yet to make his first-class debut. Having no experience in professional red-ball cricket, Dubey has played eight List-A and 20 T20 games so far in his career.

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#4 He will earn more than Ravichandran Ashwin and Yashasvi Jaiswal at RR

Dubey's maiden IPL contract will see him earn more than several of his RR teammates, including the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ravichandran Ashwin.

Dubey, who was snapped up for ₹5.80 crore, is the fifth-most expensive Indian player at Rajasthan after Sanju Samson (₹14 crore), Avesh Khan (₹10 crore), Prasidh Krishna (₹10 crore) and Yuzvendra Chahal (₹6.50 crore).

Two experienced players in Jaiswal (₹4 crore) and Ashwin (₹5 crore) are on a lesser wages than Dubey.

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#5 His batting style is similar to Shivam Dube

Shubham Dubey shares a similar name to star IPL batter Shivam Dube, who is renowned for tonking the ball long.

Rajasthan fans would be excited to know that it is not the only thing that their latest acquisition shares with Dube. Dubey's batting style is quite similar to Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) Dube. Both the left-handers love to go down the ground and target the straight boundaries at will.

With a short backlift and great power in their hands, both batters have the ability to muscle the ball quite a distance.