India’s left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed was extremely happy with his fellow Sunrisers Hyderabad seamer T Natarajan’s performance in his debut series in India’s white-ball leg of Australia tour 2020-21.
Natarajan's cricketing journey is nothing short of a fairytale so far – from an incredible IPL 2020 campaign with SRH (16 wickets) to made his ODI debut at Canberra, and then finished the three-match T20I series as the highest wicket-taker overall with 6 scalps.
The left-arm seamer scalped two wickets and helped India to win the final ODI by 13-runs and most importantly, avoid a 3-0 ODI series whitewash against Australia. India’s new “yorker specialist” has shown his ability with his yorkers and to bowl the quick bouncer – that impressed one and all.
Describing Natarajan as a highly talented bowler, Khaleel said the Tamil Nadu fast bowler bowled exceptionally well and was absolutely impressed with the way he restricted Australia’s run-scoring, especially at the death overs having plenty of control throughout the games.
He further noted that the 29-year-old played a significant role in India’s T20I series victory in Australia while acknowledging Hardik Pandya’s statement of awarding the man of the series award to the seamer.
Ahmed told Times of India on Wednesday, “Natarajan bowled really well. He bowled with so much control. He is one of the players who played a big role in India’s win. He contributed so well. That’s why Pandya said he deserved the man of the series award. Natarajan and I have played together at SunRisers. He is a talented bowler. I am really happy for him.”
Meanwhile, the Indian pacer has credited captain Virat Kohli for the turnaround the way Team India bounced back from the two defeats in the first ODIs and went on to win three games – final ODI to avoid a whitewash and first T20Is to clinch the series on Australia tour.
Khaleel further said, “The credit goes to our captain Virat Kohli. He knows how to take the team out of trouble. It was an amazing series. Team India looked confident in the series. We lost the ODI series but the win in the third ODI gave the Indian team a lot of confidence. We got the momentum from there. The win in the T20I series will be a huge boost ahead of the Test series. The win will give (the team) a lot of confidence ahead of the Tests.”
India's win in the second T20I in Sydney was Men in Blue’s 10th win on the trot in the shortest format of the game and Khaleel said “the tourists outplayed Australia in all departments in the T20I series”.
He signed off by saying, “It was 10 on 10 for me. The way they (India) made the comeback (after losing the ODI series), it was incredible. That's Team India for you.”
(Times of India inputs)
