New Delhi: Off-spinner Washington Sundar made his first-class debut in 2016 but played the last of his 12 first-class games over three years back. He suddenly found himself in the playing XI in a crucial Test and managed to pick the wicket of the dangerous Steve Smith.
Left-arm fast bowler T Natarajan, on the other hand, has played 20 first-class games over the last six years and played his last one, only last season.
The two shared three important wickets of Smith, centurion Marnus Labuschagne and Matthew Wade, as India managed to restrict Australia at 274/5 at the end of the first day’s play in the fourth and final Test.
“I have always felt my skill levels are good at red ball. I have bowled a lot at first-class level and definitely lot in first division league in Chennai (days’ format games played with red ball), so I have bowled a lot red ball. Definitely I was waiting for this opportunity. The last couple of months I was here, I did get to bowl a lot of balls and get a chance to improve on my skill level. It was just quantity (number of overs) and I didn’t really change anything technically,” said Sundar after the day’s play while speaking to the media during a virtual interaction.
“If you see everyone, they all have done really well in first-class cricket and it is an amazing opportunity to represent India and do really well for the Test team. More than inexperience, guys are all excited and have done well coming over here so definitely we have had time to practice and improve skill levels as well. It was an amazing opportunity for all of us. That’s how everyone looked at this game,” Sundar added.
