India’s young all-rounder Washington Sundar has yet again played a record knock to garner praise from the cricket experts and fans including Sunil Gavaskar in the ongoing first Test of the four-match Test series against England on Sunday (February 7) at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium.
He was given the chance for the Chennai Test after Ravindra Jadeja failed to recover in time to make it to the playing XI and the all-rounder grabbed the opportunity with both hands against England.
After impressing all with his batting in Australia, the left-hander has once again played a brilliant yet responsible knock of unbeaten 85 batting at No. 7, as well as, added 80 runs with No.8 R Ashwin (31) to take the score past the 300-run mark in the ongoing first Test against England.
However, the spinner failed to deliver with the ball, as he went wicket-less while conceding 98 runs but made a huge contribution with the bat when seniors like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma failed to score after England piled up a mammoth total of 578.
With his impressive knock, the 21-year-old has joined the Indian greats like Sourav Ganguly, Arun Lal, and 7 others in a unique list who have registered a 50-plus score in debut innings at home and away.
Following his record innings, Gavaskar, former India captain, has showered rich praise on Sundar having extremely impressed with his shot-making and ability to recognize the threat of James Anderson and Jofra Archer and England spinners and then brilliantly defend himself against all of them.
The legendary batsman further said the young all-rounder has the very good temperament to go with very good basics while saying his “85 is as good as a hundred” against England.
Gavaskar told Star Sports: “He and Ashwin, that partnership of 80-plus got India back in them. If they had dismissed for not too many, then England would have had a lead of 341 instead of 241. Then they would have declared after giving their bowlers enough overs to recover. Those things would have come into play.”
He further added, “Look at the way Washington Sundar batted. Some of the shots he played were fabulous. That lofted shot of James Anderson for a six and then the shot against Joe Root as well. A well-deserved half-century, he deserved a 100 but unfortunately, batting at No. 7 you don't get a lot of hundreds. That 85 not out is as good as a hundred.”
Praising Sundar for batting so well against both spin and pace on the Chepauk pitch, Gavaskar noted: “What was more impressive is his technique than the shots he played. Often it's the way you defend a good ball that tells how good a player you are and the way he was defending those deliveries against Anderson, Archer, and against the turn as well.”
He signed off, “The way he was playing the backfoot defense shows he has got the basics right. Basics added to very good temperament makes a very good player. I think he is a very good player.”
(With India Today Inputs)
