In yesterday’s Maharashtra derby, MS Dhoni smashed five sixes. Manoj Tiwary played a gritty knock and took Rising Pune Supergiant to a decent total of 162. Then came magic of the youngster Washington Sundar, who made look the veteran Mumbai Indians batsmen, puzzled, confused and almost ridiculous.
To cut a long story short, Washington was the bowler who ran through the MI’s batsmen with an excellent spell of three wickets and 16 runs.
Some facts about Washington Sundar
Sundar was born in Chennai on October 5, 1999. He started playing cricket at the age of 11 in the second division league in Chennai.
Washington bowls off-spin with the right hand, whereas he bats left-handed. He has got the spot in the RPS side because of his bowling skills. Besides his bowling prowess, Washington is also a valuable batsman who can get quick runs in the slog overs.
At the age of 13, Sundar trained at the MRF pace academy and impressed many, including the Globe Trotters coach M Senthilnathan, by his skill to handling quality bowling at such a tender age. He was immediately drafted into the first division cricket which possesses of great standards in Tamil Nadu.
Sundar actually got the limelight for the first time when he was first picked to feature in India’s Under-19 squad in 2014 at the age of just 15 years. After a couple years from that, he played a crucial role in his team’s road to the finals of the 2016 ICC U-19 World Cup.
First-class debut of Sundar
Following decent performances at the U-19 level, Sundar was handed the first-class debut on October 6, 2016, by Tamil Nadu. Though Sundar didn’t get a chance to bowl in his first game, he played solid innings of 40 in the second innings as an opener which impressed many.
Sundar was picked up by Albert TUTI Patriots in the maiden season of the Tamil Nadu Premier league in 2016. During the tournament, he bowled some match-winning spells as he took 11 wickets in 9 matches at an average of 12 and an economy rate of 5.54.
Washington was a part of the Tamil Nadu team which recently who were triumphant in the Vijay Hazare and Deodhar Trophy. While his performance with the bat wasn’t very impressive but he did a feasible job with his off-spin bowling. His economy rate of 3.93 in these 9 games stood out as he did the containing job really well.
The teenager arrived for RPS trials and competed with India and J&K all-rounder Parveez Rasool. Both are similar players, the only thing Sundar didn’t have was the experience. He is a left-hander and a player who would be easy on RPS’s purse finally got the nod ahead of Rasool.
Sundar finally replaced R Ashwin when an official statement came out of the RPS camp hours before their first game. He now has the responsibility of filling the big shoes of one of India’s greatest spinner.
