India vs Australia 3rd T20I left fans not just disappointed, but utterly confused. Among the many talking points of the match, one stood out like a sore thumb - Washington Sundar’s inclusion in the playing XI without a single over to his name. The big question is: why pick a bowling all-rounder if you don’t intend to use him as a bowler?
Throughout the innings, skipper Suryakumar Yadav relied heavily on part-time options like Abhishek Sharma and Shivam Dube, both of whom were taken to the cleaners. Dube leaked 43 runs in his three overs, while Abhishek, astonishingly asked to bowl in the death, conceded 13 in the only over he got. Meanwhile, Sundar, a specialist spinner and a proven wicket-taker in T20 cricket, stood on the field as a mere spectator.
If the plan was to treat Sundar as a batting option, then the team’s selection makes even less sense. Why drop Harshit Rana, who could at least provide both a pace option and some lower-order hitting? Or why not pick a proper batter like Rinku Singh or Sanju Samson instead? It’s decisions like these that make fans question the clarity - or the lack thereof - in India’s team management.
To make matters worse, Sundar not only remained unused with the ball but also dropped a straightforward catch of Tim David, who later went on to punish the bowlers brutally. The optics couldn’t have been poorer - a bowler not bowling, a catch going down, and part-timers bleeding runs while specialists look on.
India's Bizarre Calls
This isn’t an isolated incident either. In the previous T20I, Harshit Rana bizarrely batted ahead of Shivam Dube. Now, in this game, part-timers were trusted to bowl before Sundar. It’s a pattern that reflects inconsistency and tactical confusion.
Team India’s rotation policy and experimentation in bilateral T20s are understandable, but there’s a thin line between experimentation and chaos. Right now, it seems the latter has taken over. Fans deserve answers, and so does Washington Sundar, who might well be wondering why he was even on the team sheet if his skills were never going to be used.
