Former India opener WV Raman was elated when Washington Sundar walked out to bat after the fall of the opening wicket against Delhi at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium. Batting at No. 3, Sundar slammed a class century, his second after a gap of seven years, and Raman, who is doing commentary for the match, called it “flawless.” It indeed was a knock of high quality from Sundar.
Throughout his 269 balls stay at the crease Sundar played only two false shots. First helped him get to his century, an outside edge through the slip cordon and second cost him his wicket as Sanat Sangwan completed a juggle at gully.
“In the longer format, he should be seen as a batting all-rounder,” said Raman.
“He must play in the top order. He is a waste down the order in a red ball. He is not someone who will take five wickets and score 30 runs. In the white-ball, it is understandable that your top order is loaded and the role is different. But in the longer format, especially overseas, he has got that perfect technique to bat in the top five and can give you 10-12 overs a day. He should be looked at as a batting all-rounder in Test cricket,” he said.
Centuries from Washington Sundar (152) and Pradosh Ranjan Paul (117) helped Tamil Nadu pile up 674 for 6 in their first innings against Delhi. In reply, Delhi were 43 without losing any wickets.
“I consider myself to be a top-order batter. I’m very happy with the kind of opportunity I got to be batting at No 3 and I am looking forward to bat at this position for Tamil Nadu in the future as well,” he told reporters after the day’s play.
The 25-year-old, who was unbeaten on 96 overnight, completed his century in the third over of the day. Tamil Nadu lost two quick wickets in the first session as overnight double-centurion B Sai Sudharsan (213) was strangled down the legs by Navdeep Saini. Baba Indrajith (12) after playing a couple of delightful shots, prodded one away from his body and was played on off Himanshu Chauhan’s bowling.
But Sundar kept the scoreboard ticking. It was Sundar’s first first-class hundred since 2017, where he reached the milestone against Tripura as an opening batter. In his brief Test career, the all-rounder remained stranded on 85 and 96 against England at Chennai and Ahmedabad, respectively in 2021.
“A hundred is a hundred. There are no two ways about it. I have been feeling very confident about how I have been batting in the last few years especially. I have just been trying to focus on what the team demands me to do. Batting at the top of the order is a lot of fun,” he said.
The all-rounder missed the first round of Ranji Trophy match as he was part of India’s T20I squad against Bangladesh. Recently, he has been juggling from one format to another and he explained why it is “exciting” and the adjustments he has made before playing the Ranji Trophy.
“Before a red ball game, you get 3-4 days. So I will practise those things on the net. It is all about getting into the right rhythm and making sure you are sticking to your strengths. Playing different formats, you don’t take a lot of time to switch,” He said.
Sundar has not played Test cricket in the past three years and has recently been considered a white-ball specialist, but the youngster is eager to make a comeback.
“Test cricket is the ultimate format. Everybody values it a lot. For me, red-ball cricket means a lot. Hopefully, I can play a lot of games and keep performing really well,” he said.
Happy return for Pradosh
Pradosh Ranjan Paul had a welcome return to the venue, where he slammed his maiden first-class century against the same opponent, two years ago. Paul was the third centurion for Tamil Nadu after Sai Sudharsan and Washington Sundar.
For Delhi, the seamers Navdeep Saini and Himanshu Chauhan bowled their hearts out on a placid track and picked up two wickets each. Delhi had already lost Pranshu Vijayran, their third seamer due to ankle injury on the first morning and now they have suffered another setback as debutant Dhruv Kaushik had a split webbing while fielding. In his absence, Harsh Tyagi, a lower-order batter was sent to open with Sanat Sangwan, who is playing only his second match.
