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There is a moment in every cricketer's career when the cameras become your enemy. For Shivam Dube in IPL 2026, those moments keep coming with alarming regularity and Saturday's El Clasico between CSK and MI at Chepauk added three more entries to what is becoming one of the most talked-about fielding horror shows in recent IPL memory.

Shivam Dube's horrow show in field during CSK vs MI

In the sixth over Dube made a mess of a simple stop at short third man allowing Naman Dhir and his partner to cross over for a run. In the eleventh over he was late to react to a chip from Tilak Varma at cover, running around the ball instead of charging forward and watching it land in front of him.

And back in the sixth over of the same match he had already put down what Murali Vijay on Tamil commentary described with words that were direct, pointed and entirely justified.

The veteran commentator then went further, questioning the hype around Dube entirely and pointing to his limitations against quality pace, his ordinary fielding and his restricted shot selection. Strong words. But when you look at the numbers from this season, not words that are easy to argue with.

The numbers that tell full story

According to ESPNcricinfo's ball-by-ball tracking logs, Shivam Dube has dropped four of five catching opportunities in IPL 2026, a drop rate of 80 percent that is the joint worst of any fielder with at least five catching chances in the entire tournament. He shares that unwanted distinction with Punjab Kings' Shashank Singh, also four from five.

But while Shashank's extraordinary batting has more than compensated for his fielding lapses and PBKS sit first in the table, Dube's bat has not been providing that cover. The fielding failures are consequently far more damaging to CSK's fragile campaign.

And this is not a new pattern, Dube dropped Mohammed Rizwan in 2024 and dropped Finn Allen in the T20 World Cup 2026 final in the very first over. India won both those games despite the errors, which perhaps allowed the issue to be minimised for longer than it should have been.

The specific drops that have hurt CSK most in IPL 2026

The most consequential miss came on April 5 at Chinnaswamy when Dube dropped Virat Kohli on just seven. This was not a difficult chance, it was the kind of opportunity that changes a match and potentially a season.

Kohli went on to build a significant platform that helped RCB post a massive total and put CSK under enormous pressure in the chase. Dube eventually took the same catch later in the game and celebrated with considerable enthusiasm, which only drew more attention to the original error and generated significant social media reaction.

The second major incident came on April 18 against Sunrisers Hyderabad, when he dropped Abhishek Sharma at a crucial point in a tight chase that CSK ultimately could not complete. Ruturaj Gaikwad referenced the team's fielding standards in the post-match presentation without naming anyone directly but nobody was in any doubt about who he meant.

Beyond the dropped catches there has been a consistent pattern of sluggish ground fielding, slow lateral movement in the deep and a general sense that opposing batters have identified his area as a place to target for easy runs. Batters are frequently running hard to his boundary region knowing that the pressure of a quick accurate return is not guaranteed.

The batting of Shivam Dube has not been compensating either

The fielding crisis would be more tolerable if Dube's batting was doing what it did in the T20 World Cup two months ago. It has not been. He has managed 150 runs from nine innings at a strike rate of approximately 140, numbers that look acceptable until you apply context and understand the role CSK are asking him to play.

He has not produced a single match-winning innings all season. In the games where CSK needed an enforcer at the death, the games where they needed someone to take the match away in the final three overs, Dube has arrived and made 21 off 16 or 5 off 8 rather than the 180-plus strike rate assault that his best batting genuinely demands.

The highest score of 45 not out gives you a glimpse of what he can do but it has been a lone bright spot in a largely frustrating campaign with the bat.

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Role confusion that is root of the problem

Former players including S. Badrinath have made this point clearly, CSK have been using Dube in completely the wrong phase of the game. His defining skill is taking down quality spinners in the middle overs between overs seven and fifteen. He has the power, the left-handed angle and the mindset to be genuinely devastating in that phase.

But CSK have been deploying him at number seven in the death overs, asking him to deal with Jasprit Bumrah, Jofra Archer and other world-class pace bowlers on yorker-length at 145 kilometres per hour.

That is not his game. A slow bouncer or a wide yorker at the death and Dube has no answer, this is not a new observation, it has been a known tactical weakness for years. By holding him back until it is too late to use his primary weapon against spin, CSK have effectively neutered their own asset and then wondered why he is not producing the impact they need.

The burden he is carrying without tools to carry it

Here is the brutal arithmetic of Shivam Dube's IPL 2026. He does not bowl regularly enough to contribute overs. He is dropping catches at a rate of four from five. He is batting in the wrong phase of the innings and a with a strike rate significantly below his peak.

In T20 cricket if you are not contributing in at least two of the three disciplines your place in the side becomes genuinely difficult to justify regardless of your reputation or your World Cup medal. Analysts have begun using the word baggage, a harsh term but one that reflects the mathematical reality of a player who is currently not tipping the scales in his team's favour in any department.

The most jarring part of the entire story is the contrast with two months ago when he was striking at 169 in the T20 World Cup final, fulfilling exactly the right role in exactly the right phase of the game and helping India defend their title. That version of Shivam Dube exists. IPL 2026 just has not seen him yet.