London [UK], July 13 : Former cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar believes the impact that Washington Sundar created with his spinning deliveries on the fourth day of the third Test against England to turn the tide in India's favour serves as a lesson for captain Shubman Gill.
Throughout the second session, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep barreled in blistering deliveries to induce false shots, but returned empty-handed. But Sundar weaved magic and trapped England's top stars in his ploy to force the hosts to bundle out on 192.
England remained unperturbed with its captain, Ben Stokes, and talismanic batter Joe Root at the crease, steadily navigating the hosts to a wicketless session. With the partnership standing at 67, threatening India's position of dominance, Sundar took the mantle of inflicting the breakthrough.
The sweep shot came back to haunt England after Sundar exploited the rough and managed to sneak the ball past Root's swinging blade. He rattled the exposed leg stump to pull India back into the mix.
For Manjrekar, Sundar's influence was a wake-up call for Gill, who tends to be preoccupied with the seam bowling options at his disposal. Manjrekar believes the presence of two "pure" spinners should be involved in the main plan.
"Gill has a tendency to get a bit preoccupied with seam. This turnaround from Washy should serve as an early lesson in captaincy...when you have pure spinners in the side, alway have them as part of your main plans. Not as an afterthought," Manjrekar wrote on X.
As Root returned on 40(96), Jamie Smith joined hands with Stokes to stitch England's return. The in-form Smith lasted just 14 balls after Sundar intensified the pressure. He made Smith rush to defend the ball. Smith played for the turn, but the ball kept straight and crashed into the stumps, forcing the 23-year-old to return cheaply on 8(14).
Sundar continued to prosper and rattle stumps in the final session. With Stokes tussling for control against the ball tweakers, the 25-year-old ensured he walked back to the dressing room in agony. He found a sublime in-drift around the wicket to go past Stokes' (33) defence and allow the ball to crash into the stumps.
The young spinner bagged his four-wicket haul by cleaning up Shoaib Bashir, who danced around the crease as the ball clattered into the stumps, to finish with figures of 4/22. Remarkably, Sundar's all four wickets were bowled.