NEW DELHI: Some eyebrows were raised when Washington Sundar replaced Kuldeep Yadav in the Indian playing XI for the second Test against New Zealand that got underway on Thursday at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune.
Having played his last Test against England in 2021, Sundar was making his comeback into the Indian team.
New Zealand were 32/1 after 8 overs when Sundar was brought into the attack by Indian captain Rohit Sharma.
Sundar bowled 6 overs in his first spell but went wicketless and went wicketless in his second spell too.
Ravichandran Ashwin, meanwhile had taken 3 wickets and the Kiwis were 197/3 after 59 overs when Sundar was brought back in the attack for his third spell.
And on the first ball of that spell, Sundar clean bowled last Test centurion Rachin Ravindra with a beauty of a delivery.
Bowling round the wicket, the delivery drifted in on off, landed around a length and turned sharply. Ravindra got forward but could not cover it on the front foot and was squared up in defence as it turned past the edge before clipping off stump.
Sundar got better and better with each over and finished with a career-best spell of 7/59 to bowl out New Zealand for 259 runs in their first innings.
Five of those 7 dismissals by Sundar were clean bowled as he put on an exhibition of drift and dip on a pitch that did take a decent amount of turn as well.
Sundar, who returned with best first-class figures of 7/59, led the team off the field for turning the game on its head.
This was not just a maiden five wicket haul for Sundar in Test but also his first in all First Class cricket since August 2022 and first in First Class cricket on Indian soil since October 2017.
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