Sundar: One for the long haul
The spin all-rounder showed all the promising signs on his Test match debut.
It was the first ball of the 63rd over in India’s first-innings at the Gabba. India were 165/5, still trailing by another 204. Washington Sundar having faced 7 deliveries till then was batting 2 not out. He had already taken a couple of bouncer blows on the body as Australian pacemen ran in hard seeing him as the last joint between the upper and the lower half of India’s batting. Usually, bouncers push your weight back, make you so wary of them that you lose sight of the fuller one awaiting. Outstanding fast bowlers like Hazlewood and Cummins use this ploy to make you drive at a length shorter than you’ve expected and that often results in the edge as the ball tends to also move in or away after pitching. Sundar, though, showed exemplary maturity, absolutely no signs of being deflated by those short balls and stood perfectly within his stance. He drove Hazlewood straight with such ease, confidence and authority that in that moment you forgot the young man is making his Test match debut.
As far as Test debuts go, this was among the most unexpected and impressive ones. Part of the limited-overs outfit, Sundar stayed with the side for the Test leg only because the team needed someone extra to imitate Nathan Lyon in the nets. If not for the injury to Jadeja, to Ashwin, and multiple first-choice quicks, especially Bumrah, and of course, this pandemic, Sundar wouldn’t have played in Brisbane. I mentioned the quicks here because I felt that also was a decisive factor that went in his favour and against Kuldeep. India’s decision to play Sundar, a finger-spinner, as opposed Kuldeep, a wrist-spinner of six Test caps, was a prudent one. I felt sad for Kuldeep but was equally in agreement with the team management’s call. Given the collective lack of experience within the available fast-bowling resources, skipper Rahane and coach Shastri opted for extra control and cushion in their attack for the series-deciding Test. That’s why T Natarajan and Sundar made their debuts. The call to play Natarajan was vindicated the moment Saini got injured and the one to play Sundar, as we now know, proved impactful and could well have set an illustrious career in tone.
On any Test debut, you don’t expect milestones but look for little clues to pick whether the individual involved is your horse for the long haul? In wake of what happened over the course of five days of the fourth Test, I’m convinced, Sundar is one. It’s not the numbers, the knocks of 62 & 22 or the spells of 3/89 & 1/80, it’s the resolve and temperament he showed despite being picked for a difficult initiation on foreign soil, having not played first-class cricket since 2017.
Losing the all-crucial toss on Day 1 and being asked to bowl first, India needed their spinner to keep things tight from his end so that the pacers can be rotated. Sundar did it commendably, showing no nerves or anxiousness. The 21-year-old seemed to have grasped his role perfectly within the bowling line-up and stuck to it at all stages. Given the circumstances, Sundar knew he can’t be adventurous and bowl the conventional outside off-stump line too much. So he sensibly had more cover on the leg-side and kept it consistently at the stumps. And though he didn’t get as much drift in the air as Ashwin did to make the leg-trap more threatening, Sundar’s ways proved effective enough for him to keep a leash on run-scoring and also chip away at the wickets. He got Smith out caught at short mid-wicket, before also dismissing Green and Lyon bowled. The ball to get Green was an interesting one as the batsman had been trying to make room and open up the off-side to Sundar but ended-up playing inside the line of one a tad too much. With that line, that’s all you need to get a wicket: slight error of judgement. At Sundar’s height and pace, you don’t get the time to stand resurrected either, as Lyon would’ve realised after missing his sweep shot. Before those two, the wicket of Smith’s showed Sundar’s smarts, as after putting in a cluster of balls at the good length area, he threw one fuller and perhaps lulled the great batsman into playing a stroke he would’ve otherwise avoided keeping that fielder in mind.
Traditionally, spinners are told to flight the ball above the eye-line and bowl slow through the air in Test cricket. Sundar, however, I felt, used his successful T20 attributes to enjoy a fruitful debut in the whites. In the shortest-format, where he’s among the finest spinners around, Sundar uses his tall stature and speed to great advantage, hitting the hard lengths regularly and never allowing the batsman to get underneath the ball. While the lines and lengths attacked and defended by batsmen are all unique in T20s and Test matches, the control and the accuracy remain just as paramount from format to format. Sundar exhibited the same level of ‘control’ playing this Test as he does when he is used in the powerplays and the middle-overs of a T20 but over a longer period of time. He bowled at his usual pace, with a flatter trajectory, to keep the batsman rooted to the crease.
It is only in the second-innings did Sundar lose control to an extent, especially when Australian batsmen went on the offensive, trying to take the score beyond India. I put it down to some tiredness as Sundar was into the fourth day of a competitive fixture after a three-year gap in his career. In that innings, Sundar got Warner out LBW with the one coming in with the angle but released slower and slightly wider. It was a subtle variation, but enough to beat the experienced Warner in the air and pin him at the crease.
Going back to the first half, particularly Day 1, Sundar induced more false strokes against the right-handers than he did versus the lefties. Unusual for an off-spinner, but that was probably because of the line that he was operating with in this Test match. Not many balls went away from the left-hander. Generally as well, Sundar isn’t a big turner of the ball either into the right-handers or away from the lefties, although he does impart decent spin on the ball. But, as we’ve seen historically, he doesn’t need to be a big turner of the ball to succeed at the Test level. ‘Subtle variations’, in the lengths, the lines, with the drift, the angle of release, use of his height, sliding the ball or under-cutting it in the seam, would suffice as long as the initial line or direction of the ball is aimed at the stumps. Especially on pitches offering him natural turn off a length. At least at this stage of his career, I believe Sundar should just stick to his strengths and try not to do things he can’t. With time, as he gains in experience and confidence, Sundar can look to expand his range of skillset, but a pragmatic route would also be the safest one for now I feel. Sundar’s gradual improvement would only be enabled by the towering presence of Ashwin at the other end in the next series, in India against England, with the first two Tests on his home ground Chepauk.
That series, with Jadeja unavailable, is a great opportunity for Sundar to strengthen his case as an all-round Test cricketer. As a batsman, Sundar showed fantastic range of the front-foot versus both the pace and spin at the Gabba. It is perhaps his backfoot game that needs fine-tuning. But overall, if he can tackle Hazlewood and Cummins in their own den, there is no reason why he can’t Archer, Broad or Anderson in his home terrain. That’s what he should mentally tell himself batting at №7 in those four Test matches, especially the first two. Performances in the earlier part of the series will help Sundar keep Hardik and Axar at bay. The selectors also have seen Jadeja’s absence as an opportunity to boost that all-rounder’s spot and see whether after the series they have more options to choose from. In India, as №7 he won’t get to bat much, but Sundar will know, crucial runs there, while also proving effective with the ball, will keep him around the set-up a long time, even when Jadeja returns and plays ahead of him in the XI. Besides batting performances, would Sundar eclipse Kuldeep, a more robust spinner, in the pecking order if he can outbowl him over a long series?
Didn’t think I’ll be writing about Washington Sundar the Test cricketer at the end of this series, but now, very interested in seeing where he goes from here in the whites.
