Washington Sundar: India's next No. 1 allrounder?

Before Washington Sundar scored his maiden Test hundred to help India save the Old Trafford Test, he had had innings of 27 off 90, 0 off 4, 23 off 76, 12* off 7 and 42 off 103 in this series. To go with figures of 2 for 107, 4 for 22, 0 for 21, 1 for 28 and 0 for 73.

Nothing extraordinary apart from the Lord's four-for, but if you sit down and remember the shots of the series and the balls of the series for a highlight reel, Washington will feature prominently.

Even before the massively drifting offbreak to trap Ben Stokes lbw at Edgbaston, Washington had reprised his Gabba pull, only more emphatically, off Josh Tongue. He had also been at the receiving end of a stunning offbreak from Joe Root that bowled him. Then there was the lovely inside-out six off Root into the biggest pocket at Lord's. Nothing more than a chip, but it just kept going.

In having lofty standards for his son, even Washington's father has managed to draw comparisons with the father of another batter who was immensely pleasing on the eye, Kumar Sangakkara. Like any father would, Washington's father might feel he has been hard done by the selectors and the team management, but the decision-makers in Indian cricket have actually gone out of their way to play Washington as much as they can. It is not charity; they want to exploit the high ceiling of Washington's talent.

The Impact Player rule in the IPL has been a stumbling block for Washington because the playing condition gives teams no incentive to develop allrounders. After having become a regular, Washington has played only 15 matches in the three years of the Impact Player era; he played 30 in the previous three.

Being out of sight can hurt a player's perception, but thankfully not in the eyes of the selectors. It has perhaps also helped Washington develop his bowling. In this series, for example, no spinner has managed to drift the ball as much as he has: 2.543 degrees on an average, with Liam Dawson, Ravindra Jadeja and Shoaib Bashir hovering around 1.5 degrees. He has also attacked the stumps more often than other spinners bar Dawson. On pitches with little help for spinners, drift and line have created most of his seven wickets, including Stokes' at Edgbaston, which went bewitchingly late and against the prevailing wind.

This is also an improvement on his own numbers of 2.233 degrees against England at home in 2021. He has also bowled quicker than he did at home - average pace of 91.71kph as against 87.61 - perhaps because there isn't much to be gained on these pitches by going slower. While Washington has been doing more in the air laterally, it would appear he is not as accurate as Jadeja or perhaps not getting as much dip.

If batters can play the ball within two metres of its pitching or go back and give themselves more than three metres to intercept it, the chances of a spinner getting them in trouble reduce drastically. Spinners endeavour to catch them in between. Washington has done so only 19.7% of the time in this series; a measure of how good Jadeja is that he has done so every third ball. This is why Jadeja is in the contest almost everywhere. These numbers are consistent with Washington at home as well.

Add Washington's batting to the package, and you know why the decision-makers have been so keen on him. Throughout his effort to draw the fourth Test, it never looked like he would give England even a chance. As early as in his first Test, the historic Gabba win, Washington showed he was capable of batting in various gears: slow and composed when in trouble in the first innings, counterattacking in a chase.

Washington is at a stage of his career where the team hasn't quite figured out what his best role is. He could be a specialist batter who bowls a little outside Asia. He could be a frontline spinner who bats in the lower middle order in Asia. Even in this phase, he has elite allrounder's numbers: average of 44.86 with the bat and 27.87 with the ball.

Of course, at this stage, Washington gets to play only in conditions that suit him: as a third spinner until now, he came in only in extreme conditions in India. Now, though, he is the heir apparent to the now-retired R Ashwin as the spinner who also bats. Jadeja is no spring chicken. Whenever he retires, Washington is in pole position to become India's No. 1 all-conditions allrounder.

In scoring his first hundred to draw the Test from the No. 5 slot vacated by the injured Rishabh Pant, Washington has shown enough to earn that trust. Now the expectations are lofty, and not just his dad's.