Why Washington Sundar Needs a Long Run at No. 3 in Tests

India's batting lineup, right, has been doing very well—or I mean, perhaps someone is playing elsewhere and over here it's being figured out. And in T20 games, but these top three are moving up into the Test batting lineup, so you...

One, in the context of a Test match...

Well, 87 and 39, I guess. Batting at three is a different skill. When you bat at six or seven, it becomes a different skill.

Vashi Vashi is a great player. The way he has developed his game is amazing—amazing talent, an amazing player at three.

If you want to keep developing as a batter, you have to set each game up like this.

In Vashi's case, he is forgetting what happens to the team after you leave—basically Vashi...

No, James, you make your point, because there was a time in my career, up to 2013–14, when my batting average was around forty to forty-five, and many people suggested to me that I could move up the order, I made some decisions, I

I started bowling along with batting, because I enjoyed bowling a lot, and I always felt I was the team's lead pace bowler

I have spent more time on bowling than I have on batting.

Muttiah Muralitharan once told me that I would have to give more time to bowling.

I also felt I would need to give more time going forward. If someone wants to bat at number three, then they will have to give as much time to batting as they do to bowling.

So they will need to give extra time to batting and prepare in a different way.

At six and seven the preparation will be different. Going forward your situation will be different, you will find out, but in your number—if in your number you bring partnership and depth, then you…

The security you get comes with freedom — when that security is not there you cannot play your game. And it is very important for players that they are allowed to play freely. So at that number three, if team management sa…

When they start to play you should give them a long rope at that number. If you are watching Washington — if you see Washington being given freedom

then you should give him a long rope so he can also prepare for his role.