Washington Sundar Gautam Gambhir for India. Image Credits: X
Indian spin bowling all rounder Washington Sundar was officially ruled out of the remainder of the ODI series against New Zealand due to an acute onset discomfort in his left lower rib area that he faced in the first ODI in Vadodara during his five-over bowling spell and was replaced by Delhi's Ayush Badoni in the squad.
Despite sustaining the aforementioned injury in the first innings, Sundar did take part in the second innings of the match, while India was chasing the 302 run target and required 22 off 22 with 6 wickets down.
The decision from the management to send the injured batter in did not go too well with some fans and experts, including Mohammed Kaif who openly called out the team management for risking Sundar in the situation.
Kaif rips into Gambhir and co. for risking injured Sundar vs NZ
While reviewing the first ODI on his YouTube channel, former batter and experienced broadcaster Kaif felt the Indian management should have treated Washington Sundar's injury with same seriousness like they did with captain Shubman Gill during the first Test vs South Africa in Kolkata than potentially aggrevating the issue ahead of the T20 World Cup.
"You will remember when Shubman Gill was injured, he did not come out to bat in that Test match, the Kolkata Test. It was a high-scoring game and people thought that even 20 or 30 runs from him could help India win, but he still did not bat. That was done to give full protection to the player so the injury would not be aggravated," he emphasized.
"But the same approach was not applied with Washington Sundar. That is why I feel it was a wrong call. KL Rahul’s running between the wickets was affected. Even though India won the match, I feel there were higher chances of aggravating the injury in yesterday’s game," he further added.
He further spoke how the run-a-ball chase could have been completed using the other players, who could have easily played out the innings with Rahul's guidance, who looked solid for his 29*(21) at the end.
The former player felt the recovery time from an injury like this can easily go from 10-15 days to 20-25 days with such negligence from the think tank.
Sundar's T20 World Cup in doubt?
While there is no official update from BCCI regarding the seriousness of the blow and expected recovery time for Sundar as of now, it is likely that the off-spinner could miss out on the start of the T20I series against the Kiwis if things don't go as planned.
His home T20 World Cup dream could also be under threat if the injury is further aggrevated due to his batting effort of 7*(7), where he was visibly struggling to move freely. With the series supposed to start on January 21 in Nagpur, any replacement for the NZ T20Is is not named as of January 13.
India's T20 mega-event begins on February 7, against USA at the Wankhede Stadium and they are grouped alongside USA, Pakistan, Netherlands and Namibia in the competition.
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