Left-arm pacer from Tamil Nadu, T Natarajan, has made rapid strides in his professional cricket carer from being a tennis ball player to getting a call up in the national side for the tour to Australia.

He has played for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for the past 2 seasons and showed his yorker-bowling skills to the world in the IPL. He has been picked in the Indian team on the virtue of the same.

His coach at SRH, VVS Laxman, believes that he might be the X-factor for India when India host the T20 World Cup next year.

Laxman told Sportstar, "With the T20 World Cup scheduled next year - if you look at the Indian team, it requires someone good at the death. It is great to see the likes of Mohammed Shami and Navdeep Saini bowl with such confidence in the death. Natarajan being a left-armer will be the X-factor."

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"Natarajan was always known for those yorkers - even in the TNPL. But, I must say he got a lot of variations that he didn’t use in the IPL. He has a sharp bouncer, slower one, off-cutter and has the wicket-taking ability with the new ball," he added.

The former Indian cricketer also added that the mindset and confidence that Natarajan possesses helps him delivers the yorkers under pressure.

"Essentially, Natarajan has the mindset and the confidence of executing yorkers which we generally believe to be the toughest to deliver. And, he has done consistently and exceedingly well through the IPL, the pick of them being the dismissal of RCB’s AB de Villiers under pressure," the 46-year-old said.

(With inputs from Sportstar)