Former India batter Subramaniam Badrinath commented on 24-year-old all-rounder Washington Sundar ahead of the Sri Lanka Test series. The two-match Test series will begin on August 15 at Galle. Washington Sundar has been ruled out of the first Test after sustaining a hamstring injury during the second ODI of the recently concluded England series as well. Badrinath said that role clarity could play a key role in managing players and injuries as well.
“Clarity brings confidence. The more there is clarity, the more there will be confidence. Let Sundar play only Test cricket. Maybe he can play ODI a bit if they want. But if he plays T20 also, he will keep getting injured. Age is not an issue. But his fitness and body is not able to compensate for everything. Same with Bumrah, probably better management and monitoring could have been done,” he said in a video on his YouTube channel.
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A major reason behind India’s shocking Test series defeats to South Africa and New Zealand at home was that the players failed to play spin well. While talking about that, Subramaniam Badrinath added that the current players are not playing enough first-class or domestic red-ball cricket, which caused the downfall.
“It is directly related to playing first-class cricket. I always say this. The likes of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, even Gautam Gambhir, all of these guys played Duleep Trophy, Irani Trophy, and for their states before coming to play for India. First-class cricket is a testing ground. I know a lot of players who would come and play first-class cricket to counter spin. Even two hours or three hours, its not about the runs, its about the confidence. Indian cricketers now do not play first-class at all and it shows a clear decline,” he said.
“I know they are playing a lot of cricket and don’t have enough energy for first-class cricket, but you need to make time. You have nine Tests before the WTC final. It’s okay if you take a break from some T20 series, come and play first-class cricket or the Duleep Trophy. All players want to play all formats, that time is gone. You need to get specialisation and work on specific skills,” S Badrinath concluded.
