Washington Sundar to join India squad in Delhi

Washington Sundar will join the India team in Delhi, where they play their next game on February 12 against Namibia, as confirmed by captain Suryakumar Yadav. Suryakumar declared, following India's 29-run victory over the United States in their campaign opener, "Washy [Washington] is joining us in Delhi." "Everything is fine, he is good." Washington was sidelined with a side strain after the first ODI against New Zealand last month and has been out of action since then. While he was replaced by Ayush Badoni in the ODI series, India opted not to replace him in their T20 World Cup squad, as the injury was not too serious. Moreover, he was unlikely to be part of the first-choice XI. Jasprit Bumrah, India's leading pace bowler, was also ill and missed the USA game. Suryakumar said, "He was having a high fever because of the weather, like how Abhishek [Sharma] was under the weather. However, everything else is satisfactory. India was reduced to 77 for 6 in the first half by the United States, causing a major panic. But Suryakumar's unbeaten 84 off 49 balls lifted them to 161 for 9, which proved to be enough in the end. Suryakumar was confident of rescuing the side but at the same, he said the batters could have been "a little smarter". Suryakumar stated, "Only I can tell how much pressure I was feeling." "However, at the same time, I believed that I had batted in similar circumstances. And I have played a lot of cricket in the maidans of Mumbai, so I knew if I bat till the end, I can make a difference. "It was a little different wicket from what it is always at the Wankhede. But at the same time, we knew when we woke up in the morning, there was not a lot of sun outside. The curator and the groundsmen tried their best to prepare the best pitch. But some things are not in their control. There was not enough sunlight to have the pitch rolled and watered. But we cannot be brushing everything under the carpet. We could have batted a little better. "After winning also you get to learn a lot of things. Additionally, we discovered today that we could have batted a little smarter or better. We could have reached 160 with two small partnerships rather than one or two batters trying to play until the end.