Washington Sundar talks about his experience in the Indian dressing room

Among those players who are being tried out for preparing a pool of probables to choose from with the vision of the 2019 World Cup is Tamil Nadu’s Washington Sundar. He made his debut in International cricket only weeks back against Sri Lanka in Mohali. His T20I followed soon in the recent series against Sri Lanka, in the last match of the series at Mumbai.

As the 18-year-old from Chennai talked about his experience of entering the dressing room for the first time. The Indian team, he said, was welcoming.  “For someone of my age, walking out for India and sharing the dressing room with the likes of MS Dhoni and so many others was a dream come true,” said the off-spinning all-rounder to Sportstar.

Shastri’s message?

“They put me at ease. Shastri Sir kept telling me to believe in myself. Bowling coach B. Arun Sir wanted me to play my natural game and Rohit Sharma showed a lot of faith in me.” When Ravi Shastri handed the ODI cap to the youngster at Mohali, he said “Play bindaas (carefree) cricket. Shastri Sir must have uttered the word ‘bindaas’ to me at least six times over the last two weeks. He wanted me to enjoy my cricket, be fearless.”

In fact, skipper Rohit displayed enough confidence to give Washington the new ball in the Twenty20 International at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. The off-spinner sent down three of the six power-play overs conceding 18 runs while scalping aggressive southpaw Kusal Perera.

Washington dedicated his T20I debut to the late P.D. Washington, the man he was named after. He was an army-man who gave much-needed financial and emotional support to his father M. Sundar, an all-rounder who made it to the Tamil Nadu Ranji probables list during his time, was nursed through his cricketing career by P. D. Washington.

“I was delighted to be playing for India on Christmas eve. We are Hindus but have a Christmas tree with stars in our house during this time every year during as a mark of respect to a man who had helped my father so much. And every year, we remember him and celebrate his spirit during Christmas,” said Washington.