Stubbs. Special

The South African is fast-becoming one of the best T20 middle-order bats in the world. Gomesh S talks to former Proteas all-rounder and Warriors head coach Peterson to understand the making of the DC batter...

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T was February 21, 2021. Warriors were playing Dolphins at Kingsmead, Durban in the CSA T20 Challenge. Sitting in the dugout were Robin Peterson and a 20-year-old Tristan Stubbs. On his professional T20 debut, Stubbs was nervous and the Warriors head coach was trying to calm the nerves. Peterson had seen the youngster, who was an Eastern Province player, during a net session a few days back. Not a match or a competition, but a net session where they were looking for a T20 batter. The sound of Stubbs' bat stayed with Peterson. And it did not take long for him to be convinced that Stubbs was special, and he was it. "When he hit the ball, it sounded a bit different from his bat. You sort of recognise that sound. When you've played for a long time and you've played with players like AB de Villiers and the way it made a similar sound when he struck a ball, we brought him into the team," Peterson recalls in a chat with this daily.