After an eight-wicket defeat in the opening Test of the three-match series against New Zealand at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, the spin all-rounder Washington Sundar has been added to the squad for the rest of the two games by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) national selectors. He is expected to join the team on late Monday (October 21).
Washington Sundar has recently featured in the second game of the ongoing Ranji Trophy 2024/25 season for Tamil Nadu against Delhi at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. The 26-year-old came out to bat at number three in the batting order and smashed 152 runs in 269 deliveries, with the help of 19 boundaries and one six to extend the good job of the away side, where they put up a 168-run opening stand.
TN declared on 674/6 in their first innings before the off-spinner also picked up three wickets in their bowling. He captured the wickets of Delhi opener Harsh Tyagi, Pranav Rajvanshi, and Pranshu Vijayran. The selectors have included the all-rounder as the 16th member of the side without making any changes.
Washington Sundar aims to stretch his Test career
India was handed their first home Test defeat over the Kiwis after 36 years, as the second game is scheduled to take place at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on October 24, while the final encounter will occur from November 01 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
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Washington Sundar was part of India’s three-match T20I series against Bangladesh last month and has been a near-regular member of the white-ball squad in recent months. But his Test career, which started during the 2020/21 trip to Australia for the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT), has come to a wait in March 2021.
The off-spin all-rounder has been part of four Test matches where he has played 265 runs in six innings at an average of over 66, with the help of three half-centuries at a best score of unbeaten 96 runs. With the ball in hand, he has notched up six wickets at an average of around 50 and a strike rate of nearly 15 overs, with an innings best of 3/89.
When it comes to his first-class career, the youngster has creamed 1246 runs in 47 innings at an average of over 30, notching up nine half-centuries and one century with a best score of 159. With the ball, he has grabbed 59 scalps at an average of 31.47 and a strike rate of more than ten overs.
At the end of the 2020-21 season, during which Washington Sundar impressed in the 3-1 home series win over England, the then-head coach of the side, Ravi Shastri, hailed the Chennai-born as the premier all-rounder across all three formats in the future and advised him to work on his fitness and to bat up the order in domestic cricket.
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The team management decided to promote the left-hander for the Delhi game, as he highlighted how he considers himself a top-order batter. It’s possible that he could be selected as the top order batter for the next Test, given the fitness concerns of their first-choice number three batter, Shubman Gill, and Rishabh Pant, who didn’t keep wickets due to taking a blow to his right knee.
India will also have the option of dropping Mohammad Siraj for the Pune Test and bringing Akash Deep in that place, besides going with Washington Sundar at the top order, which will allow them to have four spin options.