Aakash Chopra opined that Washington Sundar is a proper batter and that is why India's head coach Gautam Gambhir promoted him to No. 3 in the batting order during the first Test of the previous Test series against South Africa. The former India opener made this remark after the spin-bowling all-rounder scored a fluent half-century against Afghanistan on Day 2 of the one-off Test at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in New Chandigarh.
During his knock, the Tamil Nadu all-rounder scored 52 runs off 68 balls, hitting five fours and one six after walking out to bat at No. 7. His partnerships with Manav Suthar, Mohammed Siraj, and Kuldeep Yadav helped the home side post a massive first-innings total of 564 before captain Shubman Gill declared. Chopra said that such batting abilities gave Gambhir the belief that Sundar could do well at the important No. 3 position against the Proteas.
"He is actually a proper batter. He is a top-order batter, and that's why Gautam probably got tempted once to bat him at No. 3. That was the Kolkata Test match, but he has a century to his name, and that too came in difficult circumstances in terms of the context of the game," he said while speaking on Star Sports.
The cricketer-turned-expert added that Sundar will not find batting at the red-ball circuit that difficult because he has an extremely sound technique, which will help him score runs consistently.
"He is technically extremely compact, and he just continues to score runs. Until he keeps playing this format, he will keep scoring runs like this. This is not his challenge at all. He will only get praised here," the 48-year-old observed.
Sundar, however, didn't contribute too much with the ball. While he bowled the fewest overs (6.4) among all the Indian bowlers, he conceded 21 runs and picked up the wicket of Ziaur Rahman Sharifi, the No. 11 batter for Afghanistan.
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