In their 5-wicket defeat to England at Headingley, India went from 430/3 to 471 all out in the first innings and 333/5 to 364 all out in the second. They also failed to take 20 wickets, managing just 15 in close to 200 overs that their five bowlers bowled.
In the bowling unit for the first Test was the world’s best pacer Jasprit Bumrah.
So how is India expected to react after losing the Test they should have won? They could think out of the box, and switch personnel, notably bringing in Kuldeep Yadav without heeding to the pitch calculations. And going purely by past team selection trends where all-rounders get summoned as fixing-all-bases-solutions, it could well see them adding an extra bowler without compromising on their batting strength. Washington Sundar for a specialist batsman could be an idea the team management might be toying with, before the Edgbaston Test starting Wednesday. That’s only because this thinking has history.
On Monday, at the nets, he bowled with Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav for long and batted against throw-downs. Though added to the mix of options was Nitish Kumar Reddy who also had extended nets.
This is exactly the way coach Gautam Gambhir, and captain Rohit Sharma, had reacted after the loss to New Zealand in the first Test at Bangalore. It was once again a game they were expected to win. After two easy wins against Bangladesh, that was Gambhir’s first Test defeat as India coach.
So who did he think of in this time of crisis? Who was his go-to man for the second Test at Pune? Tamil Nadu’s No.3 batsman with a formidable reputation as a competent white-ball off-spinner – Washington. Who did he replace? Kuldeep Yadav, a formidable Test spinner who bats at No.9 for India and even for UP.
It is no secret that Gambhir prefers bowlers who can bat – be it when he is picking his KKR sides in IPL or the Indian team for Tests. Be it the brownish cracking pitch at Pune or, as Wednesday will prove, the track with a greenish tinge baking under the Birmingham sun. Courses change, horses don’t.
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The decision to drop the non-batting spinner Kuldeep from the playing XI and include Washington for the Pune Test against New Zealand had come as a surprise. It was a brave call and an ambitious punt. Had Washington not succeeded, the new coach would have faced a barrage of questions.
Washington wasn’t in the squad for the New Zealand series, he hadn’t even played a Test since 2021. He was to be in Coimbatore for a Ranji game for TN. He got into the Test squad that already had four spinners – R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep and Axar Patel. India went on to lose the Test to New Zealand to go down 0-2 but Washington’s 7/59 justified his inclusion. He also had a huge impact on the mind of Team India’s decision-makers. Post-match no one questioned the choice of the spinner. Washington for Kuldeep – had worked for Gambhir.
One Test later, India was in Perth, Australia. It was here, that a very significant decision for Indian cricket was taken. Rohit was not with the team, he was at home in India for the birth of his second child. Jasprit Bumrah was the interim captain. Gambhir was among the decision makers when Washington was preferred over the senior off-spinner of the team, Ashwin and left-arm orthodox Ravindra Jadeja.
This time it wasn’t Washington making the cut because of his batting skills, since both Ashwin and Jadeja are competent Test batsmen. This was about the coach, captain and selectors feeling that Washington was the best all-rounder for Perth. India won the Test with Washington doing his bit. He got a couple of tailenders out, made a useful 29 and had a respectable bowling average of close to 3 runs. Was it a message for Ashwin? Those details haven’t yet emerged but Ashwin announced his retirement at the next Test match, the pink ball game that he was included for.
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Washington went on to play a couple of more Tests in the series but he was unspectacularly average. Though, he did plug the run flow, mostly restricting the Aussie batsmen to score around 3 runs. He wasn’t quite the bowler who took 7/59 at Pune against New Zealand. And surely not the batsman who hit a 62 in the first innings and a more precious 21 in the secolnd, which included that iconic ‘no-see’ six, in the historic win at Gabba in his debut Test during the 2021 BGT series.
At Headingley, India had leaked runs all through the Test match. The team’s designated wicket-taker, Jasprit Bumrah, didn’t get the support that he would have liked. The bowlers didn’t have discipline, they didn’t create pressure. They didn’t even score many runs.
Washington could play that role. Even while the first Test was on, the team management seemed to be thinking ahead, keeping their Plan B ready. On the morning of the final day, when England needed 350 runs, the reserve all-rounder could be seen bowling at a single stump in the company of coaches.
The only dilemma for India could be the marginal role that spinners play in the first half of the Tests in England. As Headingley showed, there is a uniform spread of about close to 8 mm of grass on pitches. Heavy rolling makes the grass blades sleep, making the 22 yards smooth like a green carpet. It’s a surface that doesn’t allow the ball to spin, there is no mud that grips the ball.
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At Headingley, Jadeja was wicketless in the first innings and Shoaib Basheer got one, though he got Shubman Gill after he had scored 147. It was a tired shot that got the Indian captain out, not some magical ball. It is only in the second half of the Test that the footmarks come into play and that’s when the slow bowlers seek to exploit the roughs.
But India will hope that in case Washington gets a game at Edgbaston, he does his usual run-restriction act in the first and turns into a wicket-taker in the second. They can also pray that he bowls like he did in Pune and bats like he did at Gabba.
