BRISBANE: India spinner Washington Sundar, who became the 301st Test cricketer to play for the country, interestingly shares his Test cap number with the telephone area code of Maryland, a portion of the Greater Washington DC.
Pacer T Natarajan and Sundar made their Test debut in the fourth Test against Australia at the Gabba. Natarajan became the 300th Test player for India.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) took to Twitter to share videos of both players receiving their caps.
Bowling coach Bharat Arun presented the Test cap to Natarajan while Ravichandran Ashwin gave the cap to Sundar, who became the 301st Indian cricketer to play Test cricket.
Sundar’s father M Sundar, a former Ranji probable, had a godfather named PD Washington, who lived just two streets away from his home. He was an avid follower of cricket and had developed a fondness for M Sundar’s game. Realising that he was not financially secure, the retired army officer used to buy him uniforms, pay his school fees, and often used to drop him to the ground in his cycle.
In an unfortunate turn of events, PD passed away in 1999. Shortly thereafter, Sundar’s first son was born. In memory of his late godfather PD Washington, M Sundar decided to name his son after him. Coming back to the game, Steve Smith became ‘Washi’, as he is fondly called, first Test wicket. The spinner broke the 70-run partnership between Marnus Labuschagne and Smith.
Smith scored 36 runs before being caught at short midwicket by Rohit Sharma. Earlier, Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. India made four changes in their playing XI with injuries to Ravindra Jadeja, Hanuma Vihari, Jasprit Bumrah and Ashwin.
Apart from Natarajan and Sundar, Shardul Thakur and Mayank Agarwal were included in the final XI for the fourth Test at the Gabba. For Australia, Marcus Harris replaced Will Pucovski, who had injured his shoulder while fielding on Day 5 of the third Test. (ANI)
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