Gargi Raut at Old Trafford
When Washington Sundar was first announced in the team, social media scoffed, many shook their heads and questioned his place in the team. With a proven wicket-taker, Kuldeep Yadav, warming the bench, many asked: Why Washington Sundar? The last time he had played a Test for India was in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Sydney where he scored a cumulative 26 runs. Many thought that Washington didn’t deserve a place in the team in a high-stakes Test series.
On the fifth day of the fourth Test at Old Trafford, Washington walked off the field and answered all critics and naysayers. Not with words, but with 101 unbeaten reasons carved out of patience, grit and resistance.
To understand the complete arc of Washington’s story, you have to go back to where it story began or rather where the world took notice of a budding all-rounder. It was back in January 2021 at The Gabba in Brisbane.
India were fielding what was effectively a third-choice XI with the camp marred with injuries. The 21-year-old Washington was flown into Australia as a net bowler, and even in his wildest imagination, he wouldn’t have imagined making the team. But a left-field pick forced him out at the fortress that was the Gabba. He hadn’t even played a first-class match in over a year, but he stood tall.
Counter-punching the best of the Australian pace attack, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, he scored a fearless 62 that ultimately took India over the line and birthed the famous “Toota hai Gabba ka ghamand” line on comms that still echoes in every Indian cricket fan’s mind.
That day, Washington became a cult hero, but unfortunately heroes don’t always get long careers. With a problem of plenty in the Indian cricket team, the next star is always waiting. For close to three years, injuries and team combinations kept him out, and it was only in October 2024 when he finally made a comeback in India’s whites. So, when he was named in the XI ahead of Kuldeep for this tour of England, the knives were out again.
While you understand where the criticism of the playing XI was coming from, Washington had done nothing wrong. Kuldeep had been brilliant, but India wanted batting assurance and Washington with his all-round pedigree was their card to play.
In the fourth Test, India started Day 5 137 runs behind, and when Shubman Gill and KL Rahul were dismissed, it looked like it would be the end of India’s attempt at a fightback in the match. In came Sundar at No. 5, promoted up the order, pressure mounting and the series slipping. But just when the world doubted him, he stood firm. Alongside Ravindra Jadeja, under overcast skies, he weathered every single storm England threw at him. Blunting the new ball, it was one of the most heroic displays of courage and grit.
He reached his half-century with a six and a four off a visibly damaged Ben Stokes, but he didn’t let emotion take over. It wasn’t time to. He kept batting and batting and batting, frustrating the English bowlers and tiring them out.
When he was at 80, Stokes approached the two batters at the crease, wanting to shake hands, and call it a draw but it wasn’t over yet. The Indian skipper wanted his two warriors to get their centuries, and by the time he drilled a boundary through cover to reach his first Test hundred, the match was all but drawn.
But to understand the significance of the ton, you have to remember that this wasn’t a hundred made on a flat track or with scoreboard freedom. This was a milestone earned when everything was stacked against the Indian batters. It was a hundred that rescued the match and reminded the cricket world that Washington isn’t just a backup all-rounder. He’s a fighter. A survivor. A match-saver. He was the boy who won at the Gabba. Now he’s the man who stood tall at Old Trafford.
No one expected him to come out with an innings like this, and in an era when louder personalities grab all the headlines, Washington went about his business quietly, with a slight smile on his face every time England tried to come hard at him. India may not have won the Test, but they won something more enduring, a belief in a player who refuses to be forgotten. And in Washington, cricket found something it always cherishes, a quiet hero with an unshakable will.
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