Manchester: Three days before he was unexpectedly picked for India’s home Test series against New Zealand last Oct, Washington Sundar scored a 152 for Tamil Nadu against Delhi in a Ranji Trophy match while batting at No. 3. “I consider myself to be a top-order batter,” Washington had asserted at the end of the day’s play. “I’m happy with the kind of opportunity I got batting at No. 3. I’ll be batting regularly up the order in future. Hopefully, I can deliver such knocks consistently in future.”
In the middle of a disastrous Test series against New Zealand on raging turners, a shaken team management and selection committee had picked Washington for his off-spinners. Soon, he was the lead spinner ahead of R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja when India took the field in Perth a month later.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW! In England, he was drafted into the playing XI in the second Test purely on the basis of his ability to add batting strength to the lineup down the order. Calls for including a specialist spinner in Kuldeep grew louder, but the team management kept backing Washington to be the second spinner.
On Sunday, he answered the call with the bat at No. 5 and saw to it that India came out of the fourth Test without losing the series. Washington is now the second Indian to score his maiden Test century in Manchester, the first being Sachin Tendulkar in 1990.
Washington’s composure at the crease, against a red-hot English attack on a pitch with disconcerting variable bounce, needs to be measured beyond the number of overs he has batted. It’s not that he hasn’t batted well for India before. He scored a half-century on debut at the Gabba in 2021 and also has an unbeaten 96 against England to his name. He averages in the upper 30s in Tests. But Sunday was a different kind of challenge.
He was asked to bat at a position which is manned by Rishabh Pant, whose fractured foot left a gaping hole in the middle order. Washington had to prove he was a good enough batter to fill in for Pant, after having proved he is skillful enough with the ball to keep Kuldeep on the bench.
“Washington was in really good form. It’s just that sometimes, when you’re playing seven or eight batters, sometimes it’s difficult to accommodate someone. With Rishabh not being there, it was our opportunity to put Washy at five,” Gambhir said on Sunday. “We always knew what kind of form he was in, after the way he was batting in the nets and even in the last couple of Tests,” Gambhir added.
When he opened up the game by claiming four wickets in the second innings of the Lord’s Test, Washington was asked if he was comfortable with the team management describing him as someone who can fill in as a second spinner and add a few important runs at No. 8. “This is a team sport. I want to contribute to the team differently in different passages of a match. I’ve been given different roles. That’s what makes Test cricket exciting,” he had said.
Washington is the quiet achiever of Indian cricket. He has already been a key part of some memorable Tests since his debut. He has just made it very difficult for India to leave him out of the XI.
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