Dinesh Karthik believes move No. 3 could have an impact on Washington Sundar’s bowling in the long run, after the conclusion of the Kolkata Test between India and South Africa. sundar replaced tamil nadu temmate sai sudarsan in batting order and delivered a solid performance in both innings. After advancing to No.3, the all-rounder scored 29 in the first and a fighting 31 in the second innings.
However, Sundar bowled just one over in the entire game, which came in the first innings. With 35 wickets to his name in 16 Tests, Karthik felt the promotion was a direct message from the team management to focus more on batting. Speaking to Cricbuzz, the former wicketkeeper said that it will be difficult for the 26-year-old to be good at batting and bowling at the same time.
“Where do you look at Test player Washington Sundar? Is he a bowler who can bat? When you send him at three now, you’re almost telling him he needs to focus a lot more on batting. The minute he starts spending those long hours batting in training, you tend to limit training to batting because it’s physically impossible to be good at both.
“So the message is very clear that we are looking at big runs from you. That could affect his bowling in the long run. It is very tricky,” Karthik said.
“FEELS SUNDAR WAS DISRECOMMENDED”
Shaun Pollock said Sundar needs to work out his game plan when it comes to his batting and he deserves a run at the top of the order. The South African legend said he felt Sundar was always underutilized as a player.
“Application is the right word. I think he’s still going to work out his game plan, how he wants the pace in three innings, when he wants to be positive or aggressive. But he deserves a run. So you keep him in that position, give him four to five more Test matches and see how he goes. If things don’t go well, you might look at a change.”
“I always felt like he was underutilized. They probably could have looked at him a little bit more. But as far as hitting, there’s nothing wrong with his application. He’s going to work more as time goes on,” Pollock said.
Despite Sundar’s efforts with the bat, India lost the Kolkata Test by 30 runs.
– The end
Published on:
November 17, 2025
