If anyone thought that Washington Sundar would have been under pressure to perform with the bat after not getting a chance to bowl his off-breaks, the all-rounder proved them wrong with a power-packed 49 not out off 23 balls to script India’s victory over Australia in the third T20 International in Hobart on Sunday.
India skipper Suryakumar Yadav did not use Washington mainly because there were too many right-handers in the Australian line-up, but during chase the Tamil Nadu man showed his hitting prowess with four sixes and three fours making a tricky chase look very easy.
"If I keep thinking about I should definitely perform with the bat because if not I haven't gotten much with the ball or vice versa, I think that puts a lot of pressure on me and it means you are not really enjoying the game," Washington said at the post-match press conference after India successfully chased down 186.
For Washington, the most important aspect is visualization of what he intends to do and then executing the plan to perfection, something that happened on Sunday.
"Every practice session that I go to there's a purpose. I think about what exactly I want to achieve from that session and I try and achieve that; at least if it doesn't happen in the first session over a period of time it does happen as long as there's purpose to every single thing that I do," he said, explaining his mindset.
For Washington, representing India across formats and being able to fulfil the requirements of each version does give satisfaction.
"I mean the challenges are definitely exciting because there are different questions thrown at you and you just got to find your answers and that's the beauty of playing at the highest level," he added.
Washington spoke about how he needs to switch to a different mindset once this series is over and get ready for the South Africa Test series.
"I think immediately after this series, in a few days we've got a Test (SA) match. A big series is coming up, so it's just exciting to be playing different formats in the first place and also to be thinking quite differently in different formats also in different conditions.
"Australia and India, you got to do things slightly differently for you to be successful. So it's just a lot of thinking, we've got a lot of people around us who we can always go to and ask questions and find answers and yes, it's just, it's always been exciting."
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