India all-rounder Washington Sundar was unlucky with the bat during the recently concluded Test series against England. He missed out on his maiden Test hundred for the second time in the series on Saturday (March 6).
Washington's father M. Sundar talked about the knock of 96* runs in the fourth Test and reacted to people being amazed at his batting. He also expressed disappointment with the way tailenders batted.
The all-rounder was left stranded at the other end as India lost the last three wickets of Akshar Patel, Ishant Sharma, and Mohammed Siraj in just five deliveries.
“I don’t understand why people are surprised at his batting. I have been hearing. He can face the new ball. But we are ready for whatever the Indian team asks him to do,” his father M. Sundar, who had mixed feelings, told IANS.
“What I am really disappointed about are the tailenders. They couldn’t stay on for even a brief while. Suppose India were playing, needing 10 runs to win, wouldn’t this have been a huge mistake. There are millions of youngsters watching, they shouldn’t learn what the tail-enders did,” he added.
Earlier in the series, Washington had missed out on a hundred in the first Test at Chennai. While he was on 85*, Jasprit Bumrah, the last batsman, had got out to James Anderson.
“It is not about technique or skills. It was a matter of courage. England were tired, Stokes was bowling at 123-126. They were not bowling at lethal pace.”
The off-spinner R Ashwin had also talked about Washington's batting and said he came to the limelight because of his skills with the bat. “It is quite surprising (to see people bracketing him as a bowler). Washy (Washington Sundar) bowled in some of the IPL matches this season.
"He shot to fame because of his bowling in the powerplay. Quite surprising that people don’t recognize that he is a batsman who can bowl,” said Ashwin while speaking to the media.
“I am not surprised at his batting because he works really hard at his batting. In fact, we have discussions on how you should bowl more as well. He loves his batting. He is mainly a batsman so I am not surprised at his batting. He is a special batsman,” he said.
(With IANS Inputs)
