Former India player Aakash Chopra has applauded Washington Sundar for continuing his consistent run with the bat in the one-off Test against Afghanistan as well. He added that the Tamil Nadu all-rounder is a proper batter, which potentially tempted Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir to bat him at No. 3 where Washington scored an unbeaten 52 off 68 balls as India declared their first innings at 564/8 in New Chandigarh on Sunday, June 7 as well.

During a discussion on Star Sports, Chopra said, “He is actually a proper batter. He is a top-order batter, and that’s why Gautam probably got tempted once to bat him at No. 3. That was the Kolkata Test match, but he has a century to his name, and that too came in difficult circumstances in terms of the context of the game. He is technically extremely compact, and he just continues to score runs. Until he keeps playing this format, he will keep scoring runs like this. This is not his challenge at all. He will only get praised here.”

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However, Aakash Chopra also added that Washington Sundar’s challenge would be replicating former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin’s performances with the ball.

“His challenge will be how he bowls when he tries to fill Ravichandran Ashwin’s shoes. He will run ahead of him in batting. He is better-skilled than him, and he has that upside. The ceiling is really high, but his real test is bowling. Washington Sundar, as a Test all-rounder, as a batter who can bowl, is outstanding, no doubt, but the challenge will come now in bowling,” Chopra concluded.