The last series in Australia had given India the hope that Washington Sundar can be played as the spin allrounder overseas along with Ravindra Jadeja, but there still was one puzzle left in his art that was to be cracked. His batting wasn’t in doubt, but could he replicate his bowling skills overseas – at the level he showed to outperform R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja at home against New Zealand. This England series was the lab test for that. If he could, then India could play him, and not Kuldeep Yadav, and strengthen their lower-order batting in the process. By the end of the England tour, he had shown the management that he could be trusted, proving himself to be one of the finds of the series.
It’s the drift he gets that has propelled his success. He isn’t a big turner of the ball, but in conditions largely prevalent outside the subcontinent, not many spinners are going to get too much turn, and he has weaponised his drift to a great effect. Two dismissals spring to the mind right away— the stranding of Harry Brook and the trapping of Ben Stokes.
On the final day of the second Test, Washington had cracked open the game – and hence the series – by removing Stokes just before lunch with a beaut. It drifted in air from round the stumps alarmingly from well outside off to leave Stokes so bewildered that he opted for DRS even though the reviews showed it would be hitting the middle stump. According to Cricviz’s data, that ball drifted the most in the air in Tests in England among the 912 wickets they have data for spinners. India went to win that Test and stay alive in the series.
In the fourth Test at Old Trafford, Harry Brook casually danced down the track with an attacking intention. What could have happened on a pitch that was offering next to nothing? But the Indian off-spinner had other plans in mind. Using his long fingers, he gave the ball enough revs to spin it like a top. It went past the outside edge of Brook after pitching, drifting away from the batter, and keeper Dhruv Jurel took care of the rest.
These two occasions weren’t isolated incidents when Washington completely outsmarted batters with his drift, as 4/22 at Lord’s in the third Test was Chef Washington’s special. He bamboozled the English batters in the air even before the ball kissed the turf. Even one of England’s best playing spinners, Joe Root, had no answers to his mastery with drift as he misjudged the delivery while trying to play his go-to shot against spin, which is sweep and was bowled. If the one for Brook went away, the one for Root drifted back in.
So what exactly is drift? We turned to a former spinner in Venkatapathy Raju to understand the mechanics of it and a former batsman in Saba Karim to learn the difficulties in facing it.
“A ball is travelling towards you, and slowly it just tends to float away from you,” says Saba Karim. “If a right-arm off-spinner can generate drift, then from my eye line, it will go away,” says Karim. And the one which doesn’t have enough drift to take the ball away from the batter goes with the angle, as it happened in the case of Root.
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Raju explains how that drift is achieved. He should know as he had produced one of the great deliveries bowled by an Indian spinner in Australia, when he hoodwinked that great player of spin bowling Mark Waugh in an ODI in 1992. He had lured Waugh out with his flight, then sucked him into trying to flick the ball by the extent of his inward drift before leaving him stranded by the sharp spin.
Interestingly, Raju cues up the role of the non-bowling arm. “The non-bowling arm (the left hand in Washington’s case), the higher it goes, your circle is. Circle means the angle between two hands. You get the full rotation of the hands which gives more arc. With that arc, it drifts out the ball. He can get more revolutions on the ball as he has got good high arm action. And that body is transforming right towards the target,” Raju tells this paper.
Timing trick
The spinners call it timing, just as the term is used by the batsmen. The great off-spinner Erapalli Prasanna would often talk about the timing of the weight transfer. “You transfer the weight at the release of the ball, at the highest point (of your arm). Your weight has to go into the ball so that the ball traverses that distance,” Prasanna would say.
Then comes the effect of the breeze. “You have to assess which end the breeze is coming in. The air will push the ball from right to left right? That is where you have to get that proper trajectory to get that drift,” says Raju.
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India’s Washington Sundar looks on the fourth day of the fourth cricket test match between England and India at Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester, England, July 26, 2025.(AP Photo/Jon Super)
The greater the humidity, the more pressure on the ball, hence more drift. “Most of the grounds in India are big and fully covered, no? So that’s why the breeze is totally different. You don’t get that sideways breeze much whereas in England, the stadiums are smaller, more open, allowing the breeze. The weather is also totally different. They got more humidity. But then it’s 25 to 26 degrees only. When it’s cloudy, there’s more air, right?” Raju explains.
In addition to the atmospheric conditions, it also comes down to the way the ball is maintained. Speaking to Star Sports, Washington acknowledged the role of KL Rahul in keeping the ball shining on one side and letting it get older on the other side. The condition of the ball dictates the direction the ball will drift.
According to Cricviz, it is the drift that has been the most potent weapon for spinners to pick wickets in England and since 2006 among all the spinners bowled in England, it is Washington who has been able to get the maximum amount of it. (2.7 degrees). “It’s all about how you finish (bowling action), how you release. A little more early release. Then you’re giving more repetition, it is how you use your body to get that revolution,” says Raju.
While the stats have already been indicating Washington at 25 has been the best in extracting the drift, Raju believes he can get even better from here on. “If he bowls a lot in domestic cricket or in the net session. Consistency will improve. On a sub-continent Indian wicket, not a problem. There will be little help for Spin. So, he was quite decent when he played in Australia. But he didn’t get much to bowl. The more he bowls, he will be a better bowler.” And that can only be good news for India as by the time they travel to a proper full tour overseas, Washington can be the leading spin allrounder of the team.
