Young Indian off-spinner and an able lower middle-order batsman Washington Sundar will be looking to grab his opportunities with both hands when he comes out in Indian colours against WWindies in the upcoming 3 match T20I series. The first of the two matches will be played in Florida while the final match of the series will be played back in the Caribbean.
Washington has been part of the Indian set-up for the last couple of years and that might be the reason why people might have forgotten the fact that he is still a 19 years old kid who has a full career ahead of him. Washington Sundar will be one of the premier spinners for the T20I series against Windies in the absence of wrist-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.
Sundar will be part of the spin quartet which includes Ravindra Jadeja, Krunal Pandya and uncapped leggie Rahul Chahar. With the ICC T20 World Cup slated to be played in a year’s time, it is expected that all the spinners might get their chances at some point in the series.
While Washington Sundar is optimistic of cementing his place at least in the Indian T20I team but is not taking any undue pressure which might not help him during the T20I series against the Caribbean. “It is an amazing opportunity to be playing for India at such a young age. But the moment I think about the competition and start expecting too much, it makes things harder.
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I just have to focus on the present and work on my skills in practice every day. I put in a lot of hard work and effort in every session. I strongly believe that my hard work is going to pay off going ahead,” Washington told TOI a couple of days before the Indian team departs for the United States, where the first two T20I matches will be played.
Sundar was the Player of the Series during the Nidahas Trophy in 2018 and was quite impressive with the ball. He also contributed some important runs in the lower middle order. Washington Sundar quipped that he had learnt a lot in the last couple of years staying with the Indian national team.
“There has been a lot to learn in the last couple of years. And the more I play, the more I am going to learn. My execution of skills and game awareness to handle different situations has improved,” he said. Meanwhile, Sundar further added that the Windies A tour has helped him gain in confidence while going into the senior level series.
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“The India “A” tour went really well for me both in terms of building up confidence and getting some game time, especially after the break I had last year due to injury. I got to play against some quality opposition. The conditions and the players I encountered were very different to what I am used to,” observed the wiry youngster.