Sanjay Manjrekar believes that T. Natarajan will put pressure on Mohammed Shami if he continues to excel in T20Is. Yesterday Natarajan made a terrific T20I debut against Australia and picked 3 critical wickets to help India get a 1-0 lead. On the other hand, Shami looked off-colour and proved to be expensive in his 4 overs spell.
Shami gave away 46 runs as Australian batsmen scored at ease against him in the run chase. It was Natarajan who stood up for team India and did the damage when the match got close in the last overs. As a result, Manjrekar now avers that Natarajan can be a regular in India’s T20I squad because of his ability to bowl yorkers.
India Will Be Tempted To Play T. Natarajan And Bumrah Together In T20Is- Sanjay Manjrekar
The left-arm seamer who was picked on the back of his impressive IPL 2020 performance continued his splendid form with the ball and awed everyone. Manjrekar thinks that the pair of Natarajan and Jasprit Bumrah will be perfect in T20I and hinted that Shami may be omitted from the squad.
Sanjay Manjrekar further heaped praises on Natarajan and added that he is a genuine wicket-taker and who trouble the batsmen at any stage of the game.
“What he has done is he has put Mohammed Shami under pressure as a T20I bowler. Now India will be tempted to have him along with Bumrah as one of his seamers. This is a guy who can bowl at the death. If you have Bumrah and Natarajan, it just puts pressure on Shami because Chahar is from a different school of swing”, Manjrekar said on Sony Six after India’s win.
“It’s a great story purely because this is a guy who has come out of nowhere. Today, by playing his first T20I and bowling so well there was a wicket he took off a length ball of Maxwell. He is not a bowler who will get you wickets only with the yorkers when the batsmen are trying to slog you”.
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“I just find him amazing. A couple of years ago, who would have thought? He would not have imagined himself in his wildest dreams that he would be challenging the big boys for a place in the Indian team”, Sanjay Manjrekar said about T. Natarajan.
Meanwhile, Natarajan was undoubtedly the find of IPL 2020 who is now expected to be a regular feature in the T20I squad. Apart from his bowling skills his character too stood out in the first T20I against Australia. The pacer from Tamil Nadu was able to execute his plans under pressure which was the hallmark of his match-winning performance.
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