Former Indian wicket keeper Dinesh Karthik showered praise on Washington Sundar after the all-rounder scored his maiden Test century against England at Old Trafford on Sunday. Sundar was promoted to number five after Rishabh Pant suffered a fractured toe in the first innings.
Sundar joined forces with Shubman Gill after Ben Stokes plumbed KL Rahul in front of the wickets early on day five. The left-hander showed all the resistance with the bat and batted at the top of his game.
Sundar was also shielded by Shubman Gill before the new ball was due against Liam Dawson. The southpaw scored an unbeaten knock of 101 runs and added 203 runs with Ravindra Jadeja to help his team play out a draw.
Dinesh Karthik said on Sky Sports, “Two players who are going to be very important in the near future. One very experienced and the other just finding his feet in International cricket. (Sundar) Just playing his 12th Test match and has never played 3 Tests in a row, so for him to come here, apply himself after batting at No. 8 in the first innings, to bat at No. 5 because Pant wasn’t around, and to show that kind of courage, determination and skill was unbelievable.”
Meanwhile, Ravindra Jadeja also continued his rich form as he scored an unbeaten knock of 107 runs and batted at the top of his game.
Karthik said, “And Jadeja has just been a warrior in this series. Every time India has needed it, had four fifties on the bounce, and now has a hundred. It’s not actually the numbers but the way they’ve gone about it.”
Jadeja has scored 454 runs in the ongoing series at an average of 113.50.
Karthik hailed the batting unit for drawing the penultimate Test of the series despite having their backs against the wall at 0-2 in the second innings.
“It’s been beautiful to watch from an Indian point of view because this team is going to be around for sometime now. And a draw like this, when everything was against them, for them to comeback in this Test, after feeling like everything was done at 0/2, to leave it at 425/4 was quite astounding. It’s one of the better draws India has seen,” said Karthik.
The fifth and final Test match between England and India will be played at the Kennington Oval, London, from 31st July onwards.
