Does Washington Sundar have a good off-spin bowling technique? Or is he an expert off-break bowler with the ability to score a few runs when necessary?
Although the question has been around for a while, it is now being asked in public due to the manner Indian team management has used the 26-year-old cricket player.
Do Gautam Gambhir and his support staff truly understand what Washington’s role is? In his 61 Twenty20 International appearances, he hasn’t shown himself as a hitter who can end games with force or as a spinner who other coaches would be working overtime on.
Ravindra Jadeja used to be irritated by the moniker “bits and pieces cricketer,” which is the outcome of lackluster performances. And when compared to Jadeja at his best, Washington is not even nearby. Furthermore, Washington is not a spring chicken.
He played his first game before turning 18, thus at 26, he has already spent nearly ten years in the senior dressing room. However, a player is undoubtedly not a finisher if he only gets to bat in 26 innings out of 61 games and has a strike-rate of less than 130.
At best, it may be described as decent, not even good, when the same player takes 51 wickets in 57 innings with an economy rate of little over 7. In addition, he has made 1,049 legal deliveries, or 18 balls every innings. This essentially indicates that Washington is typically not given the chance to complete his allotted number of overs.
Washington, who came into the scene as an off-spinner who bowled with the new ball within the first six overs, isn’t being put at risk by raging batters worldwide thanks to the deliberate change in T20Is Powerplay batting.
In the 16th over of the innings on Friday, he bowled just one over against Ireland. He got trapped while batting and came in at No. 6 with just 9 off 12 balls.
The pattern that developed from these numbers—1, 2, 4, 4, 1.2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2—is more intriguing, though. These are the amount of overs Washington bowled in 10 innings throughout his last 12 Twenty20 Internationals (two games in Australia were washouts). And since Washington began playing under Gambhir, a pattern has become apparent.
Even though he is able to establish himself on the team, he only bowled one over in five of the ten bowling innings. He actually cleaned off the Australian tail in a match where he bowled 1.2 overs, achieving his best T20I stats of 3/3.
On three of the five instances, he was called in as a first change and took a wicket, but he was not given the opportunity to bowl. He was only given a single over.
Only 25 of his 57 bowling innings (in 61 games) have allowed him to bowl the entire allotted number of overs. Additionally, his average economy rate has decreased to 6.65 (compared to his career ER of 7.05) and his strike-rate (balls per wicket) has decreased to fewer than 20 when he bowls his entire quota of four overs, as opposed to 22.2 when he bowls a partial quota of overs.
These figures also appeared to be supported by former India great Ravichandran Ashwin’s YouTube program, “Ash Ki Baat.”
“Washington has been backed by this team (management). He seems an automatic choice in this line-up. They are backing him but what I feel that even as they play him, there is no specific role for him. There are times he is on the field, he gets one over, at times, he doesn’t even get an over. If you guys remember, during T20 World Cup, they (team management) dropped vice-captain Axar Patel to play Washington. That much back up Washington is getting,” Ashwin said.
Washington’s usage as a finisher, a skill that might not align with his domain competence, seemed to confuse Ashwin a little.
“Even in batting, they are using him as a finisher and he is not a finisher. He should have a floating role like Axar Patel used to be used by Rohit Sharma-Rahul Dravid duo. It feels like a wrong role utilisation of Washington Sundar. If you really want to give Washington a long rope then bring him just after end of Powerplay. You will have to give him 4 overs like Axar. If you don’t give that full quota, how will you know if he can grow into that dependable all-rounder,” Ashwin said.
The lack of clarity will hamper Washington, who might be more useful than a “bits and pieces” cricketer, even though the Ireland series isn’t really that big of a deal.
