17 year old Washington Sundar just set the Tamil Nadu Premier League on fire with the bat and the ball.

Sundar played for Albert Tuti Patriots and scored an astonishing 459 runs and took 15 wickets. Patriots didn’t lose a match until the finals and a big reason for that was Washington Sundar. Sundar, has made giant leaps in the world of cricket. From playing for India in the U16 World Cup to replacing Ashwin in the Pune Supergiant line up in IPL, Sundar has had a great start to his professional cricket career.

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Sportstarlive.com got hold of Sundar in the hotel in Chennai where the Patriots were lodged and had a chat with the young lad. We have excerpts from the interview.

On being successful with both bat and ball in this TNPL season, Sundar said, “What I’ve been doing this season, it was there the last season and even before that. It was just a matter of time. It took a while for me to tune my mindset to this format. You need to approach every game in this format with the best possible mindset. I knew I had to play with freedom, play fearless cricket if I want to get the best out of myself in this format. And that’s what I’ve been doing.”

On the importance of the IPL for him, Sundar said,” Definitely a lot. Especially playing for Pune (Rising Pune Supergiant). We’ve got a lot of star players… lot of leaders to be specific. Definitely, there’s a lot to learn from them on the field or off the field. But what was going on in my mind was, when this tournament gets over, I should be going with a lot of takeaways so that I can implement them in the games I’d play in the future. And I learnt a lot and that’s what helped me in TNPL.”

Sundar also shared his experience on playing with MS Dhoni in IPL.

He said, “I felt lucky to be in the side. I watched (Dhoni) closely right from the first day. I noticed what he does off the field, what he does at practice, what he does in the bus… because I just wanted to learn from him. Everyone knows he’s one remarkable person. He’s really different from anyone else. I got to spend a lot of time with him.”

Another cricketer who has been like a guide for him is the U19 coach Rahul Dravid. Sundar shared what Dravid said to him.

“If a cricketer, who’s played Test cricket for such a long time, tells me I am capable of doing this, then it means I’m definitely capable of doing this. He won’t go to any cricketer and say he’s capable of doing this. So, that’s when I started to work on certain things more than I used to. So, I think he’s been very supportive. Even he’s more or less like Mahi bhai. So there were a lot of takeaways from the (Under-19) World Cup campaign,” said Sundar.

He also had an interesting reveal on how he became an all-rounder.

Sundar shares the secret on how he his father molded him into an all-rounder, “When I started, I didn’t have the plan or intention of (choosing) batting or bowling. But whenever I used to go for a practice session, soon after batting, I used to bowl something — leg spin, off spin, something. Or if I was not bowling, I would do wicket-keeping. My dad made me do those things. He didn’t want me to chumma (idly) stand after I’m done batting.”

Finally, he spoke about setting the goals, “In the last couple of years, I haven’t been setting any sort of goals. And that’s what is helping me to stay in the present. It helps me to stay calm. I think setting goals puts you under pressure, puts you under anxiety, gets you to over-think and forget this moment. I used to set goals and I changed myself not to be that way. That’s why I am able to do whatever I can at this moment in the best possible way.”