Washington Sundar

Named after PD Washington as a mark of thanksgiving to his mentor by his father, Washington Sundar has risen the ranks, from the age-group level to the U19 level and from Tamil Nadu to Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS). At the age of 18 years and 80 days, he became the youngest player to debut for India in T20Is. Finally, he was selected for the 2019 T20I Series against the Windies. 

Sundar went from being a batsman as a youngster to making his name as an off-spinner. He was selected for the India U19 World Cup squad in 2016. After his man-of-the-series performance in the Nidahas Trophy in 2018, he became a mainstay in the national T20 team.

His IPL career has been full of ups and downs till now. Having been unsold in 2017, he joined the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant (2017) as a replacement for the injured Ravichandran Ashwin. 'Washy' became the talk of the town when he was declared man of the match having taken 3 wickets for 16 runs.

In January 2018, he was bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for INR 3.2 crores and has been retained by the franchises ever since. The dynamic all-rounder from Chennai fulfilled his promise and featured in every match for RCB, scoring important runs and picking up wickets at a crucial time.

Later on, during India's 2020-21 tour of Australia, Sundar was picked as a net bowler but due to a number of injuries in the squad, he was handed his maiden Test cap, and he delivered in fantastic style. The debutant three wickets in the first innings, including Steve Smith, a fluent 62 when India was in the dumps in the first innings, stitching a series-defining partnership with Shardul Thakur at the other end. Later in the 2nd innings, he played a vital game-changing 22 during his supporting act with Rishabh Pant, on the iconic final day heist at Gabba. His hook shot against the-then world number 1 bowler, Pat Cummins, will be etched in the memory of fanatics for a long time.

The Chennai prodigy continued his good work with the bat in the subsequent Test series against England and was unfortunate to miss out on his maiden Test ton. In the 4th Test at Ahmedabad, he was left stranded on 96* as India was bundled out in the 1st innings.

With Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in the ranks, Sundar is unlikely to get a permanent spot in the Test team in the coming years, which talks about the bench strength of the current Indian squad.

(As of May 2021)