Washington backs skipper Pant as India stare at series drubbing

Guwahati: Washington Sundar and Marco Jansen had one thing in common on Monday. Both firmly believed that Rishabh Pant’s strategy was solid, but its execution faltered slightly.

India’s stand-in skipper, batting on 7, went after Jansen but ended up edging the the short ball to the keeper’s gloves, becoming the talking point of the entire third day. Before that Dhruv Jurel played a needless pull-shot off the same bowler to hole out to the mid-on fielder.

“On another day, the bowlers would have gone into the stands and all of us would have appreciated and clapped. That’s how it is. Sometimes you just got to back their plans and their skill sets as well,” Washington’s answer was exactly similar to Jansen’s reply to the same question.

“Given the fact that they have shown a lot of proof and evidence in the past as well. I think it is just about them backing their skill sets. Obviously, execution didn’t go the way we wanted,” said India’s top-scorer on the day.

He was honest when enquired if he felt that the track was like a snake pit with Jansen suddenly making deliveries fly from length.

“It wasn’t a snake pit or whatever you may call it. It was a very good wicket. It was a true wicket. Not many days you will get to bat on such tracks, especially in India. Honestly, it is a true wicket. If you spend time there, runs are there for the taking,” Washington’s answer would certainly not be music to the ears of Jurel and Pant, both guilty of poor choices in shot selection.

He even rubbished assertions that there was a hint of uneven bounce when Jansen was getting the ball to rear up.

“It wasn’t uneven at all. He is obviously the tallest going around and he gets that bit of a sharp bounce off good length. We have played such bowlers quite a lot.

“Just on another day, we would have batted the same deliveries a lot better and it would have seemed like a very different scenario.”