Washington Sundar has had a curious career arc. He first drew attention at the senior level with his tight powerplay bowling during IPL 2017, which didn't last when he landed in other teams with other ideas. The next big step was in the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, when a surprise debut as India's lone spinner ended up as a showcase for his batting ability against a top Test attack in an unforgettable series win. He plateaued again before becoming more of a regular last year as India began preparing for life after R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
And yet, among the 20 or so players playing T20Is regularly for India, Washington was the only one struggling to get an IPL game. Put it down to the Impact Player rule. Not only does it disincentivise developing allrounders, it takes out of the game the imperfect allrounder, the nearly-there jack of all trades. Washington might disagree but he is not quite a specialist batter and arguably not in the league of Ashwin to play as an offspinner alone.
The nearly man played just two IPL matches last year. Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) then let him go, and his new team Gujarat Titans (GT), already a strong bowling unit, again didn't have a slot for him. He nearly played against Mumbai Indians (MI), though, when he was padded up all innings as a possible Impact Player when GT batted first, but they eventually chose a specialist bowler in Ishant Sharma. The story of Washington since the introduction of the Impact Player: losing out to a combination of players - Ishant and Sherfane Rutherford - whom he might have edged out if it was an 11-man team and not 12.
It was when Washington's former team SRH rolled out a dream pitch for the visitors - slow and low - that GT went in for the extra spinner, which brought Washington in. This may have also been driven by match-ups, with three left-hand batters in SRH's top three. Even so, GT realised the pitch was doing more for tall, into-the-pitch quicks than spinners, so Washington didn't get a bowl even as GT restricted SRH to 152.
Then fate took a turn. GT lost two early wickets, their captain was out in the middle, and their coach asked Washington to go in at No. 4. Possibly because they wanted to keep the right-left combination going, or perhaps because Washington's Tamil Nadu team-mate Shahrukh Khan hasn't had a great start to this year's IPL. Whatever it was, Washington saw an opportunity and grabbed it with an innings that was head and shoulders above any other on a testing pitch bar that of Rutherford, who arguably batted when the game was almost over and dew had made things easier.
Three balls into his innings, Washington started to exploit the powerplay fields, displaying both classic batting chops and T20-style innovation. The 20 he took of Simarjeet Singh in the sixth over put GT on their way. He dominated the third-wicket partnership with Shubman Gill, scoring 49 in a 90-run stand and giving Gill time to get a measure of the pitch. According to ESPNcricinfo's smart stats, Washington played the most valuable innings of the match, although Mohammed Siraj was rightfully adjudged Player of the Match for his 4 for 17.
Washington will hope he has shown enough to convince GT to make him more of a regular, but he will also know that they are a team driven more by process than results. A certain set of conditions brought Washington in, which suggests they look at him more as a bowler than a batter. Their next game is at home against Rajasthan Royals. If they play on a black-soil pitch again - they did so against MI and it turned out to play slow and low - he could stay in and keep the extra fast bowler out.