With a powerful 49 not out off 23 balls to write India’s victory over Australia in the third T20 International in Hobart on Sunday, Washington Sundar disproved any notion that he would have been under pressure to perform with the bat after being denied the opportunity to bowl his off-breaks.
Because there were too many right-handers in the Australian lineup, India captain Suryakumar Yadav decided not deploy Washington. However, during the chase, the Tamil Nadu player displayed his hitting skills with four sixes and three fours, making a difficult chase appear extremely simple.
“If I keep thinking about I should definitely perform with the bat because if not I haven’t gotten much with the ball or vice versa, I think that puts a lot of pressure on me and it means you are not really enjoying the game,” Washington said at the post-match press conference after India successfully chased down 186.
For Washington, the most crucial part is visualizing his goals and carrying them out flawlessly, as was the case on Sunday.
“Every practice session that I go to there’s a purpose. I think about what exactly I want to achieve from that session and I try and achieve that; at least if it doesn’t happen in the first session over a period of time it does happen as long as there’s purpose to every single thing that I do,” he said, explaining his mindset.
Washington finds joy in representing India in several formats and meeting the demands of each version.
“I mean the challenges are definitely exciting because there are different questions thrown at you and you just got to find your answers and that’s the beauty of playing at the highest level,” he added.
Washington talked about how he needs to prepare for the South Africa Test series and adopt a new perspective after this series is over.
“I think immediately after this series, in a few days we’ve got a Test (SA) match. A big series is coming up, so it’s just exciting to be playing different formats in the first place and also to be thinking quite differently in different formats also in different conditions.
“Australia and India, you got to do things slightly differently for you to be successful. So it’s just a lot of thinking, we’ve got a lot of people around us who we can always go to and ask questions and find answers and yes, it’s just, it’s always been exciting.”
