Washington Sundar, Siraj give a glimpse of their new-ball nous

 

Incidentally, enough captains in the IPL and Vijay Hazare trophy have trusted Sundar in the PowerPlay overs. "Yes, that is something (bowling in the PowerPlay) I have been doing in the last few years. I enjoy bowling in the PowerPlay... with the new ball. Even the fact that I played Vijay Hazare, it helped me to bowl in different situations of the game. Even over there I bowled a lot with the new ball. All those experiences have definitely helped," the all-rounder said in the post-match presser.

In the past, Sundar had also observed that he practices PowerPlay bowling in the nets. "I will tell the batsman what the field is going to be like. I will also think about where I am going to bowl. Maybe five to ten minutes, I will give myself the time to bowl in the back end, but most of the time I prepare myself to bowl in the PowerPlay," he said in the presser after an IPL game in 2020.

Sundar's bowling is basically a repetition game, sprinkled by subtle changes of pace and use of the crease. As he is also relatively tall for a spinner and bowls with a high release, he extracts more bounce. One more aspect of Sundar's game is that he tends to watch the feet or trigger movements of the batter all the way through.

In the opening ODI too he showed glimpses of his wicket-taking aptitude by sticking to his plans and preying on the batters. To encapsulate the point, in the 10th over of the innings, Sundar bowled mostly with a flatter trajectory to Bravo. The one time he gave it some air, Bravo essayed the cover-drive. It seemed clear that Sundar was teasing Bravo to play the flick or nudge one around the corner in order to trap him in front with a straighter one. The left-hander even attempted a couple of nudges/flicks.

Bravo soon fell in Sundar's very next over. With a small trigger, Bravo moved towards outside off. The southpaw perhaps was hoping to counter the turn if any. At the other end, Sundar seemed to be watching the batter's feet like a hawk as he bowled a relatively straighter line and around the good length area. As Bravo had shuffled towards outside off, he couldn't meet the ball and ended up playing around the front pad to be adjudged LBW.

With Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami set to return to the Indian set-up at some point, Sundar may get limited opportunities to bowl in the PowerPlay. However, considering the fact that the next World Cup will be played in India in 2023, Sundar can add a different dimension to the attack in the PowerPlay in certain conditions. For the moment, the home team's coaching staff would be pleased that at the end of the match they were left with more answers than question marks in relation to bowling with the new ball.