'Went to a shop after the match had started' - Washington Sundar didn't have a pair of white pads before Gabba Test

Washington Sundar made a surprise debut in the fourth and final Test in Australia and who would have thought he would go on to become one of the chief architects in what turned out to be one of the most famous Test wins for India. However, in an interaction, Indian team fielding coach R Sridhar revealed that at one point, Sundar didn’t even have pads to go out and bat with. 

The young spinner from Chennai has had quite an amazing journey in the past few months. He travelled to Australia for the T20I series, where he played a few matches and stayed back with the team, even though he wasn’t in the Test squad. He was a net bowler who was kept in the team so that he could imitate Nathan Lyon’s bowling style and help Indian batsmen to be prepared for it. 

With Ravichandran Ashwin getting injured before the final Test, India made the call of having him in the main XI. But, as he had travelled for the T20Is, Sundar had not carried any pads of white colour. He was batting in the nets with the blue pads itself. He had not even played a single first-class match since 2017 and suddenly he was making his Test debut against Australia. 

We had to go to a shop after the Test match had started: R Sridhar 

During the interaction, Sridhar revealed that the Indian team and support staff struggled to find him a pair of pads that would fit him perfectly. “We tried many but they were too small for the tall Sundar. We tried getting from the Aussies but due to Covid, they could not spare their pads. Finally, we had to go to a shop after the Test match had started,’’ he was quoted saying by Telangana Today. 

Washington Sundar was picked over Kuldeep Yadav, who already had a five-for in Australia. However, India needed Sundar’s batting at no. 7, so that he can become an ideal replacement for Jadeja. As it turned out, he picked four crucial wickets in the Test, two of which were of Steve Smith and David Warner. He also scored a magnificent 62 in the first innings to reduce India’s deficit while his 22 in the second innings helped Indians chase down the total.