How Washington Sundar and the art of non-turning off-breaks tormented England's best

Indian Express

2 days ago

Washington Sundar's character is like his skills. The man of subtle spin and useful cameos is the ultimate backroom boy, the foot-soldier who makes vital contributions but does not always win medals.
Successive coaches – Ravi Shastri, Rahul Dravid and now Gautam Gambhir – have preferred the player who can bat, bowl and do both holding his nerve in crisis situations. On the tricky Lord's track, the England batsmen most likely to succeed were Joe Root, Jamie Smith and Ben Stokes. They had the technique and temperament to survive the lively pitch. Washington got the wickets of all three.
The Bazballers – Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Harry Brook – were expected to fail against the pacers on a pitch that wasn't quite the belter it was in the morning. It was in the second session when the key battle would commence. The Lord's pitch had roughs and was wearing out – this was the stage on which Ravindra Jadeja was expected to perform. But out from the wings came the junior artist to deliver a riveting monologue. Washington didn't need the help of his fielders; all his dismissals were clean bowled.
His nuanced spin first broke the celebrated defence of Root, a man who mostly scores a hundred at Lord's. After that he hit the stumps to dismiss England's in-form wicket-keeper Jamie Smith and then the man known for cricketing miracles in these parts, Ben Stokes. As a way to put his signature on England's collapse, he clean bowled the injured No.11 Shoaib Basheer to wrap up the innings. England were folded out for 192, and India shaved off 58 runs but with the loss of four wickets.
Washington finished with figures of 4/22. This spell too was typically Washington – just short of spectacular, once again missing the conventional parameters of success in cricket. The man with a knack of missing the spotlight, was a wicket short of being on the Lord's honour's board, he was second only to Harbhajan Singh's 5/115 on the list of top performances by spinners this century in England.
But the dressing room would certainly honour the man who did the most difficult job of the day, he was the one who leaped over the highest hurdle. Even Harbhajan would say Washington's 4/22 was more valuable, for it had Root, Smith and Stokes. Harbhajan's 2002 fifer had Alex Tudor, Dominic Cork and Mathew Hoggard.
Ironically, the reason Washington got his big break in the Test team, even when two of the greatest spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were active, was his lack of turn. The Tamil Nadu all-rounder has the art of finding that apt and minimal spin on turners too. He had the skill of finding the stumps despite pitching the ball straight. So at Lord's on the pitch with some rough, a Jadeja ball would turn more and miss the stumps, Washington would hit the target. He also has the ability to extract bounce with his high arm action and tall frame.
The wicket that captured every Washington skill was of the dangerous Smith. The Indian spinner repeatedly bowled the off-spinner but turned and bounced into the batsman. This was followed by the one that drifted away and was pitching on a length where the batsman couldn't come onto the front foot and drive. It must have been barely a few degrees of variation of spin but it was enough to beat the bat that had come down to negotiate the turn that wasn't.
Root and Stokes got out playing the sweep. Root was bowled from behind his legs. He had moved towards the off-stump to kneel and play the ball to fine leg. In doing so he had kept a door ajar for Washington's ball to sneak in. He did exactly that and the stump was broken.
Stokes was out as he got carried away and ended up misreading the length of the ball. One delivery after sweeping the ball to the mid-wicket boundary for four, he tried the same shot again but Washington had been clever, he had bowled the ball up and this would almost york the England captain.
Washington had the ball on a string, it would seem and this was the thread on which India's hope hung. First as a bowler and later as batsman.
When India batted in pursuit of the target, the clock was ticking, England were rushing to get that extra over in before stumps. That's when night watchman Akash Deep, hit on the pads, called the physio. This is exactly what the England opener Zak Crawley had done the previous evening and he had been bullied and abused by the Indians, led by skipper Shubman Gill.
Now the shoe was on the other foot. England, like India, had started a chorus of sarcastic claps and verbals were being dished out. England did manage to get the extra over and Stokes shattered Akash Deep's stumps. India, chasing 193 for victory, were 58/4. On the final day, they need 135. This was still a 50-50 game. Lord's had turned into a theatre, this was an edge-of-the-seat suspense drama.
India's fortunes had rested on KL Rahul, the man most equipped to deal with the situation and the pitch. Like it was the case with England, the team's dashers and the stroke players – Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman – were out, and hope now rests with all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar and the injured Rishabh Pant.
It was Sundar who had ensured that India nosed ahead in this tight race. But his batsmen conceded the lead. Now it could well be on him to take India across the line. Maybe, finally Lord's can be the day of recognition and reckoning for Indian cricket's nearly man, the almost famous cricketer.