Washington Sundar: Re-igniting India's finger-spinning hopes
In whichever part of the world you are, whatever you are doing right now stop what you are and ask yourself what you were upto at the age of 18.
I know what I was doing then. Figuring out simpler ways to draw the Lancaster boiler in my Fundamentals of Mechanical Engineering class.
Maybe in today's times, that is old-fashioned and I say this with proof, in the form of Washington Sundar, who at the same age, has won a Player of the Series award in a tri-nation tournament that was deemed every non-useful word that exists in the dictionary only a fortnight ago.
In a team missing the likes of Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and others, his eight wickets in five matches went a long way in ensuring India won the powerplay overs in more games than one.
Taking a page out of his partner's book
The key to Sundar's success in this tournament has been the fact that his lines have been excellent, he has been unafraid to toss the ball up and critically, he has not shied away from bowling the key overs at the start of the innings.
Even in the opening game, when the Sri Lankan batsmen came out all guns blazing in pursuit of India's target, Sundar was the standout performer with the ball, with figures of 2 for 28 in his four overs, while each of the other bowlers used on the night went in excess of 7 runs per over.
His mindset has been similar to that Yuzvendra Chahal, who too has removed the fear of being hit and instead focussed on picking up wickets.
In fact, the eight wickets that he took in five matches in the competition came at an economy rate of 5.70. That put him joint on top with Chahal, whose scalps came at 6.45.
Every Indian bowler after them on the list for top wicket-takers has gone in excess of seven runs for the duration of the competition.
It tells you a story in itself of how good Sundar has been in ensuring India did not fall too behind in the powerplay overs and when wickets complemented consistency, it only made his contributions to the team's cause even bigger.
Re-ignition of India's finger-spin hopes
Before he came onto play this series, Sundar must have known at the back of his head that three months later, when India go to England, he might not be included and expectedly so, simply because Kuldeep Yadav and Chahal have been that good for India with the ball in coloured clothing.
However, if he can now back this performance with a good IPL for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, then he could surely find himself in contention for that trip.
The stock for finger-spinners in India's limited-overs scheme have dropped after Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja endured indifferent outings in the Champions Trophy last year. But this emergence of Sundar will surely re-ignite hopes and hopefully, he can slowly develop a sense of consistency to his bowling that would enable such performances in 50-overs cricket as well.
The use of the word 'slowly' is for a reason which is that the Indian fan must remind itself that he is 18. He is a young man with ability but is quite some distance away from becoming a finished product.
As Sundar passes through the rigours of domestic cricket and more, he will develop more tricks, he will learn how to combat different players on varying surfaces.
And so as supporters of Indian cricket, it will be critical to not pin enormous expectations on him and rather ensure he is allowed to enjoy, allowed to make mistakes and learn along the way.