Indian bowler T Natarajan’s career graph continues to rise in international cricket, as the Tamil Nadu seamer replaced injured pacer Umesh Yadav in the national squad for the remaining two Tests of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia.
The yorker specialist has had an incredible journey so far from coming on the tour Down Under as a net bowler to subsequently making India debut in both T20I and ODI series against Australia. He was impressive in the limited-overs series and was applauded by many for his efforts with the ball on his maiden Australia tour, as he snared eight wickets (2 ODI and 6 T20I) during his four white appearances for India.
On Friday, January 1, Natarajan was named in India Test squad for the remainder of the ongoing four-Test series after Umesh was ruled out of the Test series with a calf injury, and his Sunrisers Hyderabad captain and Australian opener David Warner was delighted with the news.
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Warner is the one who has always been vocal about his SRH bowler’s rise and even had expressed his delight when he got his maiden India call for the white-ball series against Australia.
Well, this time also, Warner was happy with Natarajan’s latest reward of getting maiden Test call-up ahead of the New Year’s Test in Sydney from January 7, but he is “not sure” if the seamer can consistently hit one length, over after over, in the longest format of the game.
Warner said during a virtual news conference when he was asked if Natarajan can translate his T20 success in the Test arena: “Good question but I am not too sure.”
The left-hander added, “You guys would be knowing his (Natarajan) Ranji Trophy stats and how he delivers day in and day out. I know he has line and lengths to do that, but obviously, back to back overs in a Test match? I am not a hundred percent sure.”
However, the swashbuckling batsman was hopeful that Natarajan would be able to have an impressive Test debut just like Mohammed Siraj. He added, “I know a fair bit about Siraj and how well he has gone in Ranji Trophy, him backing up with the repeated amount of overs. Given how his (Siraj's debut) debut went, I am hopeful, Nattu will be able to do the same if he is included in that Test squad.”
Warner also said the maiden Test call-up is a great reward for the 29-year-old after he missed the birth of his first child to do his IPL and national team engagements while wishing him all the luck for his debut.
He signed off by saying, “I think it's a great reward for Nattu. I think given that he was coming over here after missing the birth of his child to be a net bowler and then being injected into the actual squad is a great achievement for him and congratulations to him. He is a very, very good bowler and I got to see that and captain him for Sunrisers Hyderabad. I wish him all the best and if he does get that opportunity, we know he will be comfortable and will know what he has to do.”
India Test squad: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Md. Siraj, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan.
(With PTI Inputs)
