Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar, on Sunday, frustrated Australia as they stitched together a hundred-run partnership, which is the all-time highest seventh-wicket stand for India in Gabba. They surpassed former skipper Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar, the duo having contributed 58 runs to the scoreboard in 1991. This also happens to be the third-highest 100-plus seventh-wicket partnership for India in Australia after Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja’s 204 in Sydney 2018-19 and 132 by Vijay Hazare and Hemu Adhikari in Adelaide 1947-48. So who are they? What are their backdrop? Today we shall be taking about the two new heroes and all you need to know about them.
Washington Sundar was born on 5 October 1999 in Chennai. He was named by his father in honour of P D Washington. He received his early education from St. Bede’s Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School. Sundar made his first-class debut for Tamil Nadu in the 2016–17 Ranji Trophy on 6 October 2016. Like Ravichandran Ashwin from Tamil Nadu before him, Washington Sundar went from being a batsman as a youngster to making his name as an offspinner. In October 2017, he scored his maiden first-class century, batting for Tamil Nadu against Tripura in the 2017–18 Ranji Trophy. He was also selected for the India U-19 world cup in 2016. In 2017, he was selected by Rising Pune Supergiant as a replacement for Ravichandran Ashwin. He made his Twenty20 debut for Rising Pune Supergiants in the 2017 Indian Premier League on 22 April 2017. He had received the man of the match award in IPL 2017 Qualifier 1 played between Mumbai Indians and Pune Supergiants, in which he took 3 wickets for 16 runs. He holds the record for the best bowling figures in an IPL final.
Shardul Thakur had made his international debut in 2017 and has been in and out of the side as of now. He made his Twenty20 International (T20I) debut for India against South Africa on 21 February 2018. In March 2018, he was selected to play in the 2018 Nidahas Trophy. In a match against Sri Lanka he took a career best 4-27 to bring the game back to India’s favour, winning the Man Of the Match award. He finished with 6 wickets from 5 matches at an average of 29.33. In May 2018, he was named in India’s Test squad for the one-off Test against Afghanistan in June 2018, but did not play. In October 2018, he made his Test debut against the West Indies, making him the 294th player to represent Team India in Tests. His debut ended after bowling just 10 deliveries due to suffering from a groin strain in his right leg. Despite all of their struggles the two have managed to make it large and are now lauded for their efforts.