Kolkata: Washington Sundar’s career curve, after making his white-ball debut against Sri Lanka in 2017, is perplexing to say the least. He has missed five World Cups due to injury, lack of performance or simply stiff competition from his peers.

The only time he had played an entire IPL season was in 2020 for Royal Challengers Bangalore, finishing with eight wickets and an equally uninspiring batting strike rate of 116.84. That was improved upon heavily in 2022—he was scoring at a strike rate of 146—but a split webbing in his bowling hand put paid to that rallying effort. Seven matches into the next season, he was ruled out of the remainder of the IPL due to a hamstring injury.

Only two appearances without any runs and just one wicket in IPL 2024 underline the erosion of faith not only in Washington’s fitness but also to some extent his inability to make the most of the few chances given to him.

Nitish Kumar Reddy has emerged as Sunrisers Hyderabad’s first-choice allrounder, with Shahbaz Ahmed and Vijayakanth Viyaskanth getting the nod ahead of him when it comes to bowling.

But if first impressions matter, then Washington’s fantastic Test debut in Gabba—four wickets and 84 runs, including an invaluable first-innings resurrecting 62—is still probably yielding him favours. Like it did before the 2024 T20 World Cup, when India’s management reportedly put in a last-minute request to include him in the squad despite a forgettable IPL. Or maybe they were just ticking all the boxes in the spinner-allrounder category.

Which brings us to the current scenario, where Ravindra Jadeja has retired from T20Is and Ravichandran Ashwin clearly no longer in India’s shortest format plans. Does this mean an opening for Washington? Perhaps, but only if he keeps improving. Eight wickets across five T20Is with an economy of 5.16 during the tour of Zimbabwe should quietly plead his case ahead of the tour of Sri Lanka where the management will surely dabble with options. But crucial will be how Washington wields the long handle.

For a team used to having eight recognised batters, India have been averse to sacrificing batting depth for the sake of an off-spinner, given opposition batters are still dominantly right-handed. The tendency to field left-arm spinners hence, becomes both obvious and understandable from the data matchups point of view. But with Axar Patel becoming the premier T20I allrounder after Jadeja’s retirement, and Kuldeep Yadav maintaining his position as specialist spinner, the onus is on Washington to uphold the utility of an off-spinner allrounder.

If the Zimbabwe series was any indication, Washington’s bowling is largely sorted. He normally uses his height well to bowl stifling lines but at Harare, Washington was also giving the ball more air and grip, producing a fair degree of turn. This year’s IPL may have been a dud for Washington but that he has spent considerable time bowling in the TNCA first-division league has shown in Zimbabwe. “I’ve been preparing on my own terms though I wasn’t playing a lot of games,” Washington had said after the third T20I. “I knew for a fact that, or I believed for a fact that, it would pay off whenever it has to. It has been good so far in this series.”

Make-or-break however will be how Washington dials up his batting. Which wasn’t great to start with in Zimbabwe, where Washington had failed to seal a chase in the first T20I. Some comfort can still be drawn from the maturity displayed in his one-day and red-ball batting, but T20 demands innovation and a degree of belligerence, which Washington is yet to produce on a more consistent level. With the management in a mood to experiment after pushing the reset button, this tour of Sri Lanka might finally provide him with that opportunity.