India‘s T20 tour of Zimbabwe offers a preview of the team’s future. Now that senior stars Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja have retired, replacing players of Rohit and Kohli’s caliber is a big challenge, given their unparalleled achievements. However, India have no shortage of talented top-order batters to fill the vacant opening positions.

Finding a reliable spin-bowling all-rounder like Ravindra Jadeja, who excels with both bat and ball, is always a challenge. While India already have another player of that caliber in Axar Patel, Washington Sundar is also emerging as a prime candidate to fill Jadeja’s role. Sundar’s performance was crucial in keeping India in contention during their stunning defeat in the first T20I. He was also named player of the match in the third game, where he recorded figures of 3/15.

The 24-year old all-rounder was asked by the press if he is prepared to lock down the slot in Ravindra Jadeja’s absence. “I’m committed to excelling in the areas where I have strengths and capabilities, especially by thoroughly preparing. I strive to give 100% effort every single day, without compromise.”

“Preparing well keeps me focused in the present, and I am very confident in my abilities. This is a tremendous opportunity to play for India, and I am truly grateful for it. My goal is to maintain consistent performance and continue improving through diligent preparation. By doing so, I believe everything will fall into place,” he added,

Sundar has shown immense potential as an all-rounder across all formats of the game. In fact, Sundar has been significantly more successful with the bat than the ball in his four Test appearances so far.

Two of those Test matches came during India’s historic series win in Australia in 2020/21, where Sundar played a couple of crucial innings. Most notably, he was left stranded on an unbeaten 96 in his last Test outing against England in Ahmedabad in March 2021. So far, Sundar has registered three half-centuries in his six Test innings.