Washington has filled Ashwin’s shoes: McDonald
Australia’s assistant coach Andrew McDonald on Saturday praised the highly inexperienced India bowling attack for the final Test and singled out Washington Sundar, saying that the young off-spinner filled the shoes of Ravichandran Ashwin ‘quite well’.
Hit by a barrage of injuries through the series, India picked debutants Washington (3 for 89) and medium pacer Thangarasu Natarajan (3 for 78) in the playing eleven on Friday. The duo had travelled with the squad as net bowlers.
“I thought that the India bowlers were very consistent. Washington Sundar, in particular, was disciplined and filled that role of R Ashwin quite well. He kept it tight and was able to take some key wickets on the way,” McDonald said at the virtual post-day press conference on Saturday.
“So for me I suppose, he is a bowler who controlled the tempo of the game well and I think it stood out for me.” McDonald, who also coaches in the Indian Premier League (IPL), was impressed by Natarajan as well.
“Natarajan shaped the ball early. There is a lot to like about him and he is a left-arm swing bowler. No doubt that he is inexperienced, but has played enough first-class games to be playing his first Test on this tour. That is a great achievement, so I think that they held their own,” the 39-year-old said.
The left-arm pacer had impressed in the limited overs leg of the tour after making the India team at the back of a stellar IPL 2020. According to McDonald, the dismissal of Rohit Sharma was quite handy even as he termed the proceedings so far as even.
“India is 60-odd for two. To get Rohit just before the end or what was to be the end of the day’s play was very handy. But, we had 100 runs on the day. It could have been more possibly, but in saying that 350 plus in the first innings at the Gabba is not a bad score.”
The assistant coach said that his team was always looking to put up a total beyond 350 in the first essay.
“But, there is lot of cricket to be played in this and will define pretty much the series, one all coming in and all on the line. The overall performance of the series will be defined by this match, no doubt about that,” he added.