Washington Sundar gave the career-best seven wickets against New Zealand. An impressive addition to the Indian test team, showing exceptional drift and turn techniques that turned the game towards winning.
Indian cricket player Washington Sundar was brought into the game to replace Kuldeep Yadav and ahead of Axar Patel in the test series against New Zealand. Many controversies were raised when Washington Sundar was brought into the team to play Day 1 of the second test on Thursday in Pune.
The 7 wickets Sundar took against the New Zealand game that occurred at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium was phenomenal. When New Zealand was at 32/1 after 8 overs, Sundar was called into the field by Rohit Sharma, the team India captain. The first score of 30 was one of the easiest as openers hit it in 7 overs without stress. Ashwin trapped Tom Latham with lbw after 5 balls, and one drift in.
The partnership between Conway and Will Young was terrifying, just then Sarafaraz Khan returned a faint touch sending Young off the field. Sundar failed to take wickets in his first two spells even after bowling 6 overs. New Zealand were at 138/2 when Ashwin got his 2nd wicket. Ravichandran Ashwin later went to take 3 wickets at 197/3 after 59 overs at which time Sundar was called back.
At this point, Sundar went wild, getting better and better achieving a record of his career-best 7 wickets. Sundar bowled out New Zealand with 59 overs for 259 runs in the first innings of the game.
After a terrible loss in Bangalore, India stood back on the very first day of 2nd test innings, bowling New Zealand at 79.1 overs. In this game, Indian spinners have run the show on Day 1 with a clean blow of 10 wickets.
Sundar, returning with his first-class performance of 7/59 led the team to win turning the game all at once. The wickets are not only the maiden for Sundar but also his first in all first-class cricket since 2022 and his first on Indian soil since 2017.
Together the Ravichandran and Sundar duo swept all the 10 wickets. The decision to choose Sundar turned out to be the best. The fans are impressed and proud by Sundar saying nothing but “What a Return to Tests!”
Sundar’s best record of bowling was against Australia in 201 with 3 picked wickets. Moreover, the Tamil Nadu cricketer has marked his incredible return to the Test series after three and half years.