MANCHESTER: The visitors reached Manchester by train on Saturday afternoon. With the city known for its fickle weather, all talks ahead of the fourth Test against hosts England starting July 23 were about India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah. Will he or won't he?
Given that the match can turn out to be series decider, of course if the weather Gods permit a full game, assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said the team might be tempted to go with the pacer in the match with series 2-1 in favour of the hosts,
He, however, added that Bumrah's presence depends on a lot of factors, including the number of playing days the teams get with the forecast of rains during almost all the five days.
The team management might have to work on a lot of permutations and combinations as far as the speedster's inclusion in the playing XI is concerned but that may would not be the case with Washington Sundar. The 25-year-old all-rounder replaced his Tamil Nadu teammate B Sai Sudharsan in the playing XI for the second Test and has come true to the team's expectations in the next two outings.
To start with, he looked good with the willow in the first innings of the second Test scoring 42 and then went on to bowl a dream spell at the Lord's, claiming four wickets to bowl out England for 192 in their second essay. He could not replicate the success with bat as India fell short by 22 runs but his ability to score valuable runs augurs well with the team's strategy of having extra batters down the order.
Having made his ODI and T20I debut in 2017, Washington has had to wait for more than four years to play his maiden Test match. Incidentally, it came when Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin, under whose shadow he has lived all those years, were unavailable due to injuries for the deciding Test at the Gabba during India's tour Down Under. Once again, it was his batting ability that earned him an India Test call-up with spinner Kuldeep Yadav finding himself in the fringes.
The left-hand batter and off spinner had a memorable debut scoring a fifty in the first innings and adding a few important runs with Rishabh Pant in the epic chase apart from scalping four wickets in the match. India won the match and the series as Washington found his footing in the Test set up.
The next series against visiting England the next month saw Washington getting selected alongside Ashwin to play on his home turf in Chennai. The hosts lost the match with Washington going wicketless in both the innings. The unimpressive show with the ball meant he was replaced in the next match despite his unbeaten 85 in the first innings.
Ashwin, in the meantime, had a series to remember as he scored 189 runs including a century and picked up 32 wickets to walk away with the Player of the Series award. Washington too scored 181 runs including two fifties from three matches but had only two wickets in the series with a bowling average of 65.
The low returns saw Washington going out of contention in the longest format of the game. It took another three years for him to return to the India Test fold when he was added to the squad ahead of the second Test in Pune against New Zealand. New head coach Gautam Gambhir sent him in given the low-bounce, black soil pitch of Pune and Washington didn't disappoint. He bagged seven wickets in the first and four in the next to cement his place for the next contest.
Given the existing team management's emphasis on batting depth, Washington went on to play three Tests during the Australia series, which incidentally turned out to be the last for his senior counterpart Ashwin.
What combination India pick for the fourth Test will be known only on July 23 but given Washington's all-round abilities, he is most likely to be in the playing XI when the captains exchange the team sheets after the toss.