The bowling figure behind India's Naman Dhir and Shivam Dube debate

India's T20I middle order has a new darling, and the verdict forming among fans and former players is that Naman Dhir has finished off Shivam Dube, with Sanju Samson's patchy run putting him next in line. Our ratings complicate the first half at once: as a batter across men's T20 cricket, Dube ranks 41st of 204, worth 2.6 runs a match more than an average player, while Dhir ranks 54th, worth 2.1.

Is Naman Dhir a better batter than Shivam Dube?

Dhir has earned the noise. Over the last two years in all T20 cricket he has averaged 37.75, against 24.03 for top-seven batters, and his recent series against West Indies and New Zealand have been a string of short, brutal cameos, 42 not out off 15 balls among them. Aakash Chopra has argued that benching him would be unthinkable.

Dube, meanwhile, has suffered a curious kind of selection, picked and then barely used, so that in his last ten matches he did not bat four times before being left out altogether for the third game against New Zealand. A batter handed a few balls a week can neither fail properly nor prove anything.

Why Shivam Dube's place really is in danger

The case against him holds with the ball. India carry Dube as the all-rounder who fills overs, and our bowling ratings place him 141st of 145 in men's T20 cricket, 4.5 runs a match worse than an average bowler. Dhir's off-spin is no safe harbour either, going at 9.55 an over against a benchmark of 8.19. If Dube goes, it will be because his medium pace leaks like a garden hose with a split in it, and the batting comparison will have had little to do with it.

Is Sanju Samson close to being dropped?

Samson's last ten innings run hot and cold, an 82 off 41 balls against West Indies followed by 3 two days later, and a 67 in the first match against New Zealand followed by a string of low scores. That is the shape of an opener who attacks from the first over, and the cheap scores are the cost of days like the 249 India posted in that West Indies game.

Our ratings make him the 16th-best T20 batter in the world, 4.3 runs a match better than an average player, the highest of the three men in this argument, and Ravichandran Ashwin has already brushed the criticism aside. The fans have Dube right for the wrong reason: his bowling now costs India more than his batting gives them, so he should lose his place, while Samson keeps his.