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The forthcoming five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe will see plenty of breakthrough stars from the Indian Premier League (IPL 2024) don national colours for the first time.
However, more than the aforementioned names, the individual for whom these five games will be of utmost importance is Washington Sundar, who has been given a vote of confidence by the management by being picked in the ‘new era’ squad despite not having the form to warrant selection.
Sundar’s T20I stocks were at an all-time high during the pandemic, when he had established himself as a defensive mastermind with the ball in the IPL, predominantly bowling in the powerplay for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).
22 at that time, Sundar becoming a mainstay in the shortest format for India looked like an inevitability. There was so much potential waiting to be explored, not just with the ball but also with the bat in hand.
But after starting to plateau somewhere around 2022, Sundar has since seen himself steadily decline in the shortest format.
The 24-year-old hit pretty much the lowest point of his career in IPL 2024, where, despite being fit, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) handed him just two appearances in the season.
His final appearance in IPL 2024, against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, painted a pretty good picture of where Sundar was at as a T20 bowler: in a high-scoring encounter, the off-spinner got hammered for 46 runs in the two overs he bowled. And all 46 of those runs came inside the powerplay, a phase which he once owned.
Sundar has not played a professional match since then, but there are two key reasons why India have put their faith in him ahead of more deserving candidates such as Shahbaz Ahmed, Sai Kishore and Harpreet Brar — experience and profile.
Sundar might still only be 24, but he has something valuable that none of the other candidates competing for the No.8 spot have, which is experience. The 24-year-old is already a T20 veteran, having played 43 T20Is and 60 IPL games. He has played T20Is in eight different countries and is already an established international cricketer, meaning there is no question of him ‘settling in’.
He brings in a sense of familiarity and reliability that the management clearly value.
More importantly, however, it’s Sundar’s profile that’s pushed him right to the front of the queue despite two ordinary IPL seasons.
In the entire country of India, there are only two established off-spinners in the shortest format; Sundar is one of them.
Being a left-handed batter is an added advantage, but what’s given the 24-year-old a clear edge over his competitors is that he turns the ball away from the left-handers — a skillset none of the other spin-bowling all-rounders in the country, barring Ravichandran Ashwin, possess.
India won the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean with two left-arm spinners, but the one-dimensional nature of the two-finger spinners meant that Ravindra Jadeja — the lesser of the two left-arm spinners in the XI — was pretty much reduced to being a passenger. It left the side with a big matchup disadvantage, which was only not exposed on most occasions due to the genius of Jasprit Bumrah.
But with Jadeja having called it a day from T20Is, it’s obvious that the management are looking to fill the void he’s left in the side with an off-spinner in order to make the team all the more balanced and versatile.
With the next T20WC set to take place in the subcontinent, Sundar’s inclusion is also a clear sign that the management are looking to replicate the same template that won them the title in the Caribbean — bat till No.8 with two spin-bowling all-rounders who could also be used as a floaters. Except they are looking to enhance the winning formula further by adding more variety to the existing recipe.
Having been handed this opportunity on a platter, then, the onus is now on the young all-rounder to grab it with both hands and make Jadeja’s spot his own.
Replicating his SRH performances won’t cut it, but one thing that works in Sundar’s favour is the fact that he’s been excellent the last few times he’s turned out for India. The off-spinner, in his last 12 T20Is, has taken 9 wickets at an economy of 7.03.
He had a very successful series against Afghanistan at the start of the year — 3 wickets @ 7.55 E.R in a high-scoring series — and was part of the gold medal-winning Asian Games XI before that.
The all-rounder could, hence, potentially take confidence from his recent outings in national colours.
In terms of the bigger picture, this five-match series between Zimbabwe and India might be one of little consequence. But for Washington Sundar, the road to the 2026 T20WC starts here.
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