Washington Sundar – India’s future wonder

Washington Sundar is an all-rounder who has represented India in all formats of the game. He bats left-handed and bowls right-arm off-spin bowling.

Hailing from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, He made his first-class debut for Tamil Nadu in the 2016–17 Ranji Trophy. He made his IPL debut in the 2017 edition for Rising Pune Supergiant. When Sri Lanka toured India in 2017, Washington Sundar made his both Twenty20 International and One Day International debut against the Lankan side.

While making his Twenty20 International debut, he became the youngest player to debut for India in T20Is at 18 years and 80 days.

Though he has played only one ODI and is currently playing his maiden Test match, he represented 25 T20I matches for the blue men. He had more bowling success than batting as he picked 21 wickets at 29 on average with an economy of almost seven.

The Gabba Test debut

So why do we have picked to talk on Sundar? He was with the Indian team that toured Australia for a series of 3 One Day matches, 3 T20I matches, and 4 Border-Gavaskar Test series, competing for the “World Test Championship.” Australia and India won the ODI and T20I series respectively with identical margins of 2-1.

Coming to the Test match before the start of the fourth and final game, Australia and India leveled the series 1-1. However, just before the start of the Gabba Test match, India had to face injury issues. Ravichandran Ashwin, Hanuma Vihari, Ravindra Jadeja, and Jasprit Bumrah were all ruled out due to their injuries in the Sydney Test. Their star spinners Ashwin and Jadeja, were crucial to their line-up.

Ajinkya Rahane was the stand-in captain for Virat Kohli, who left after the first match due to his child’s birth. He handed debuts to Washington and the left-arm fast bowler Thangarasu Natarajan in the venue where Australia have not lost a single Test match in the last 32 years.

Australia winning the toss and batting first put on 369 all-out by lunch on day 2. A century from Marnus Labuschagne, a fifty from captain Tim Paine and the 40s from Chris Green and Matthew Wade set the total up. For Washington, he picked up 3-89 in 31 overs. He picked his maiden Test wicket of Steven Smith along with Green and Nathan Lyon.

Sundar – Thakur partnership

India found themselves 186-6, trailing behind by a big margin of 183. Thakur, who was playing his second innings, and Sundar, his first, both put on a partnership of 123. Thakur made 67 while Sundar made 62. Sundar’s 62 was the highest score by a debutant visiting Number 7 in Australia.

The all-rounder also became the second Indian player to hit a 50+ debut in his batting innings and take three-plus wickets in his debut bowling innings after Dattu Phadkar, who scored 51 & took 3/14 against the same opposition in the SCG back in 1947-’48 series. 

This partnership took India from 186-6 to 309-7 by the time Thakur got out. Eventually, India was dismissed for 336, just 36 short of Australia’s first innings total. Day 3 of the final Test ended with Australia 21-0, leading by 54 runs. 

The duo’s partnership was highly praised, given the absences of their senior players. This partnership has given India a chance to draw as rain is predicted for the final day. 

Washington Sundar may have finally marked his rise, and for his fans, he will be one to look out for the future.

Read more: Twitter reacts to Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur partnership