Ben Stokes shook his head in frustration. Maybe even a little disbelief. For an hour and a half, having embraced a stonewalling avatar, England’s captain had kept India’s wicket-hungry bowlers at bay when, in the last over before lunch, he was dismissed leg before, by Washington Sundar.
Washington was the last of the five bowlers Shubman Gill pressed into operation on Sunday, the final day of the second Test at Edgbaston. Akash Deep had given India two crucial successes after play began 100 minutes late owing to the weather, but Stokes and Jamie Smith were then defiant. Deep and Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj and Ravindra Jadeja, were negated with application and focus. India weren’t beginning to get itchy, but a blow before lunch… That would be quite something, wouldn’t it?
And so, with a little over five minutes to the interval, Gill brought on Washington. It made sense for so many reasons, not least because he would be bowling to a left-hander, with a bit of rough outside the off-stump to play with.
Washington had bowled 14 overs in England’s first innings, without any numerical success. This one over before lunch was seen more as an exploratory exercise, to get him into the action more than anything else. That first over was tidy, no more. Then, Jadeja continued his spell from the Birmingham End, ostensibly the last over before lunch was to be taken at 2.30 pm.
Flying under the radar
Cricket is a game of partnerships. The most obvious one pertains to batting and Jadeja was involved in two huge partnerships with Gill – 203 for the sixth wicket in the first innings, 175 for the fifth wicket in the second. But the bowling partnership doesn’t get as much credit as its batting counterpart, or as much as it should. In normal course, his six deliveries should have been the last six before the break. But Jadeja bowls in overdrive. In a little over a minute, he had whirled through his over and therefore allowed Washington one more crack at England’s embattled skipper.
It hasn’t been a summer of batting plenty for the left-hander, whose four preceding scores in Test cricket since late May read 9, 20, 33 and 0 (in the first innings in Birmingham, when he was caught behind off a Siraj lifter, first all). Maybe he had mentally switched off, maybe he was so sure Jadeja’s would be the last over before lunch that he allowed his intensity to slacken. Or maybe we are doing Washington a disservice simply because it appears as if he doesn’t put a great deal of work on the ball and yet often comes up with grand results.
Of the spinners on view in Birmingham, including England’s Shoaib Bashir and better-than-part-timer Joe Root, Washington was the one who got the most drift. Perhaps that also worked in the deep recesses of Stokes’ mind. To the third delivery of what would certainly be the final over before temporary respite for the hosts, Stokes thrust his right foot forward, the bat trailing in its wake. Delivered from round the stumps, the ball drifted in and held its line on pitching. It’s possible Stokes played for non-existent turn but whatever the reason, he met the ball, with his pad, on the move.
It takes a lot to get Washington excited. Such as pinging Ben Stokes in front on the final day of a Test during a push for victory.
The usually controlled young man couldn’t hide his delight, whirling towards umpire Saikat, his appeal full of belief and conviction. The Bangladeshi’s index finger went up and after a brief consultation with Smith, Stokes chose to review the decision. In hope. In desperate hope. He was willing the ball to go on with the arm and miss leg, but in vain. As the three reds flashed on the giant screen, Washington was mobbed by his teammates for a second time in 30 seconds, the game all but in India’s bag as England lost their sixth wicket, their captain, and their final recognised pair was dislodged.
Huge moment
To say that that was the turning point of the chase will be neither accurate nor warranted, but it was a huge moment nevertheless in the context of the game. Deep’s twin strikes had settled whatever early nerves there might have been, but India might have started to second-guess themselves had Stokes and Smith, who smashed an otherworldly unbeaten 184 in the first essay, been unseparated at stumps. The dressing room might have been a slightly tense place despite more than 50 overs available to them to winkle out the last five wickets. There might have been a few ‘what-ifs’ thrown in. With that one ball, which was only possible due to Jadeja’s manically swift over, Washington had lifted the mood, made sure that the team had a happy lunch, that grumpy faces and furrowed brows were replaced by broad smiles and a sunny outlook.
It wasn’t Washington’s only contribution in a match that heralded his umpteenth comeback to the Test XI. His inclusion itself had sparked healthy, sometimes heated, debate.
Popular opinion
Popular opinion demanded the inclusion of Kuldeep Yadav, the left-arm wrist-spinner, to offset the unavailability of Jasprit Bumrah, rested to manage his body and space out his workload. Washington wasn’t even thought to be in the mix until, two days before the game, assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate acknowledged that playing two spinners was a ‘definite’ option but that who those two spinners would be was the big question. That was the first indication – to the outside world – that the Tamil Nadu lad was seriously being considered. The team sheet at the toss confirmed the same, the all-rounder’s inclusion as much to do with the depth in batting he provided at No. 8 as his incisiveness with the ball.
The wisdom of packing the batting line-up when the need was for wicket-taking options was discussed threadbare outside the dressing room. Inside it, its occupants were convinced the right call had been made, a conviction that grew following the Gill-Washington alliance in the first essay. Almost everyone knows by now that even though India haven’t used him in that capacity, Washington was a specialist, top-order batter until a few years back until successive teams started to view him as an off-spinner who could bat.
If Washington felt his batting wasn’t getting the credit it deserved, there was nothing he could do other than keep stacking up the big runs that would, hopefully, eventually, alter misconceptions.
It was on the back of his second highest first-class score, a fluent 152 against Delhi in the Ranji Trophy in October last year when he put on 232 for the second wicket with opener Sai Sudharsan, that the 25-year-old was recalled to the Test XI for the first time in three and a half years. Ironically enough, as an off-spinner who could bat. In his first Test since March 2021, he batted at No. 9 and No. 6 respectively against New Zealand in Pune, and at No. 9 and No. 8 in the next Test in Mumbai. 18*, 21, 38* and 12 as the rest of the batting imploded against Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel weren’t shabby, but also in those two Tests, the off-spinner in Washington shone through as he comfortably outbowled 500-wicket man and Tamil Nadu senior R. Ashwin.
With 16 wickets in the two Tests, his status as ‘bowling all-rounder’ – we love these tags, don’t we, taking some kind of perverse pleasure in pigeonholing people? – was solidified, never mind if his Test average with the bat is in the 40s. But Washington couldn’t care less. He wanted to play Test cricket – batter, bowler, all-rounder, whatever, just pick me please, he might well have said – and when he got his chance at Edgbaston, he was ready.
Gill produced some of the most spectacular shot-making of the Test, as you would expect of someone who smashed 430 runs across two innings, with 43 fours and 11 sixes, but the two strokes that remain fresh in memory came off Washington’s willow.
In the first innings, as India looked to pile on the runs, Washington was given a tough time before lunch by Josh Tongue, the tall right-hander who had caught Jadeja by surprise with extra bounce and adopted the same approach against the taller left-hander.
After the break, Washington looked more at home. As Tongue bounced him once too many times, he walked inside the line of the ball and played the most glorious of pulls that kept going and going deep into the stands behind fine-leg. It took one back to the Gabba and January 2021 when, in a tense run-chase, debutant Washington had played an eerily similar stroke off the bowling of Pat Cummins, his left leg raised and parallel to the ground, the right leg swivelling with grace and balance.
In the second innings, with India pushing for quick runs and the declaration imminent, Washington came very late to the party but played the most stunning stroke, staying low while reaching out to Root’s off-spin, breaking his wrists and effortlessly driving the ball over cover.
Gill had caressed numerous cover-driven fours, but this one was laced with the left-hander’s added elegance. The apologetic dismissal of the ball sent it flying over the boundary ropes for a sumptuous, delightful six. Oh, the magic, the melody.
From a fringe candidate, Washington has emerged as a serious contender for the three remaining Tests. Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir aren’t averse to shaking up the established order, inasmuch as any such thing exists currently in this young Test collection, but they will have to think twice, and then some more, before opting to look beyond Washington at Lord’s and thereafter.
After all, this ‘bowling all-rounder’ boasts a batting average of 43.50 and a corresponding bowling counterpart of 28.53 from ten Tests. Capital from Washington, did ya say?