Being the ultimate, quintessential team man isn’t always a virtue. Ask Rahul Dravid. Or V.V.S. Laxman. Or K.L. Rahul. Or Washington Sundar now, more than anyone else.
Not that any one of this quartet will admit so in public, of course. That too is the lot of the team man.
Dravid was the original crisis man of Indian cricket. Need a Test opener? ‘Rahul’s the guy.’ Need someone to keep wickets in 50-overs cricket to add depth and stability and balance leading into a World Cup? ‘Ermm Rahul, can you do the job?’
Rahul could do it, needless to say. And do it very well, too. He didn’t like doing it, but he didn’t complain, he didn’t bemoan his fate. He just got down to business, in typical no-fuss fashion.
Like his batting partner in that epochal stand at Eden Gardens against Australia in 2001. Laxman had never opened the batting in any grade of cricket, at any level, then he was thrust up the order in his third Test series, in West Indies in 1997. He made a half-century in his first appearance, backed it up with a couple of more solid knocks and produced a blazing, other-worldly 167 in Sydney in January 2000 but just one Test failure later, he was jettisoned as a ‘makeshift’ opener – never mind who made him that.
To his credit, Laxman bounced back in stellar fashion to end up with an excellent, delightfully entertaining Test career, but that was despite the system, not because of it.
Following in his fellow Bengalurean’s footsteps, Rahul too has been employed in multiple roles because of his ‘versatility’. He began his Test career at No. 6 – where he had never batted previously – in Melbourne in 2014 before moving up to No. 3 in the second innings and to the opener’s slot in the next game in Sydney, where he produced his maiden century. For the next decade, he batted in various positions. He became a white-ball wicketkeeper – he still holds that role in the 50-over format – and was even the designated Test stumper for two matches in South Africa in 2023-24. Just about the only thing Rahul hasn’t done, yet, is keep wicket to his own bowling.
Which brings us to Washington, an accidental Test debutant in January 2021 because India were struggling to put 11 fit men on the park for the deciding Test against Australia in Brisbane. More than half the team that started the series in Adelaide was unavailable for the fourth Test at the Gabba – skipper Virat Kohli had returned home on paternity leave while Mohammed Shami, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Hanuma Vihari and Jasprit Bumrah had all picked up tour-ending injuries.
Washington Sundar…the Gabba flashback.
| Photo Credit:
File photo
Washington wasn’t in the original Test party, travelling with the extended squad as a ‘net bowler’, until he had to perforce be pressed into service at the Gabba. He had a Test to remember, both for the fact that he was part of the group that created history by consigning Australia to their first loss at the Gabbatoir in more than three decades and that he played a significant hand in the three-wicket series-clinching victory.
In the first innings with India well behind the eight-ball, he made a flowing 62 in a century stand with Shardul Thakur, then produced a crucial 22 in a tense run-chase while displaying nerves of steel. He played in three of India’s next four Tests, at home against England in February-March 2021, with unbeaten efforts of 85 and 96 bookending two ducks, but was then put out to pasture for the next three and a half years for no discernible reason.
He was still a bit player in white-ball internationals, and when he did return to the Test fold, it was under interesting – for want of a better word – circumstances. Having finally earned a top-order berth in the Tamil Nadu team, the left-hander made 152 against Delhi in October last year, immediately after which he was drafted into the Test side for the second game of a three-match series against New Zealand. Interesting why? Because he was picked primarily as an off-spinner to counter the plethora of Kiwi left-handers.
Washington responded with 11 wickets for the game and scored 18 not out and 21 from Nos. 9 and 6 respectively. Welcome back, Washy. Strap in for a whirlwind rollercoaster. And don’t even think about starting to feel comfortable, because we have so many plans for you. So, so many.
He was sometimes a batter who could bowl competent off-break, at others an off-spinner who could produce mellifluous runs down the order. In his first 21 Test innings, he batted at No. 6 once, at No. 7 six times, at No. 8 11 times and at No. 9 thrice. In that phase, he had four half-centuries and four other scores of more than 25. Then came the second innings of the fourth Test at Old Trafford in July and a fresh challenge.
Rishabh Pant had broken his right foot in the first innings after inside-edging a Chris Woakes reverse sweep. After retiring hurt, he did come back the next day to complete a brave half-century but by the time of the second innings, he could barely put any weight on the foot; he’d only bat if needed.
Trailing by 311 after the first innings and with more than five sessions to bat out, India were rocked by Woakes, losing their first two wickets without a run on the board. Rahul and skipper Shubman Gill put on 188 for the third wicket when the former was dismissed some 40 minutes into the final day’s play. At 188 for three, India had their work cut out. They also needed a new No. 5. So out came Washington, tall and poised and unflappable, compact and assured and technically near perfect.
For five hours, he hardly put a foot wrong. He never lapsed in concentration, he tried nothing fancy. He didn’t even so much as look at the scoreboard. He lost his captain just before lunch and should have lost Ravindra Jadeja too, first ball, had Joe Root at first slip not put down a regulation offering. After that let-off, Jadeja also put his head down. The two left-handers first frustrated and then drove England ragged, both bringing up respective centuries and securing an honourable draw as the hosts allowed their emotions to get the better of them during an ugly final passage when they behaved with petulance and lack of grace.
That unbeaten 101 ought to have been the clincher. Instead, in the next Test at the Oval, Washington batted at No. 8 in the final innings and No. 9 in the second (because Akash Deep came in as a nightwatchman), when he scored a pivotal 53 in a series-squaring seven-run heist. His next four innings have been at No. 7 (nine not out), No. 3 (29), No. 3 (31) and now No. 8 in the first innings of the Guwahati Test against South Africa, when he made an attractive, impeccable 48.
What all of this means is that in his last seven Test innings, Washington has batted at five different slots, despite which he has scored 297 runs at 59.4. He has batted with batters, he has batted with all-rounders, he has batted with bowlers and sometimes, like in the Delhi Test against West Indies, he hasn’t batted at all. Maybe the think-tank, in its collective wisdom, is convinced that the best way of getting the best out of Washington the batter is to keep him guessing and to recalibrate his ‘entry point’ each time so that he is presented with a fresh and exciting challenge innings after innings. If that is the case, then clearly, it is working.
To most people, it is natural to feel unsettled while being yo-yoed up and down a Test batting order at the drop of a hat, but Washington chooses to look at it differently. “Honestly, I really want to be the cricketer who steps up whenever the team requires and wherever the team wants me to bat and bowl. I have got to be ready and get things done for the team,” he said on Monday. “That is the kind of mindset I am in. No matter what situation I am in, it is very exciting for me. That way, I also get to play different roles. I don’t think many get that opportunity, so it is only exciting.”
Maybe the 26-year-old is being politically correct, but what other choice does he have? Even if he has good reason to do so, can he question why he hasn’t been eased off the No. 3 position despite playing out 174 deliveries in Kolkata where no one else in the Indian camp apart from Rahul (125) faced even 75? He can wonder, but whom can he ask why Nitish Kumar, despite his right-handedness in a left-heavy line-up, is occupying a slot above him despite the Andhra lad’s modest recent returns which are in stark contrast with Washington’s unquestioned consistency? If Washington has admirably chosen to go with the flow and not quibble like he is entitled to, then more power to him because wallowing in self-pity is of little help. Hopefully soon, he will be recognised for what he is and be allowed to grow into a role befitting his abilities because this up-and-down-the-batting-order philosophy isn’t sustainable in the long run.
Even with the ball, there seems to be little constancy to thinking. In Ahmedabad against West Indies, he bowled just 10 overs in the game last month, which ramped up to 36 in Delhi in the next Test. In Kolkata last week, he got just one over in the first innings and none in the second, ostensibly because South Africa had a string of right-hand batters. But Washington’s drift away from the right-handers has been a massive strength in his second coming, so why not give it a chance to express itself for more than six deliveries?
Too many questions, too few answers. The good thing is that Washington isn’t the one who’s asking any of those. Just as well, did you say?
