The story of T Natarajan has been so fascinating that everyone has been talking about it. From being the village boy of Tamil Nadu to playing for India in the blue jersey, it truly has been one of the great turnarounds for the seamer. After starting off purely as a tennis ballplayer, Natarajan was all set to play for his state side Tamil Nadu against Bengal that’s when he got reported for a suspect bowling action.
The call for suspect bowling action compelled T Natarajan to go back to his basics and rework on his bowling action. After which the next 12-13 months he spent on reworking his bowling action under the valuable guidance of former Tamil Nadu player Sunil Subramanian who was the head of Tamil Nadu Cricket Academy back then.
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Remodelling The Action As Long and Rigorous Process – T Natarajan’s Coach
Sunil Subramanian described T Natarajan’s bowling action problem in his delivery stride wherein his bowling arm would go away from the body instead of being close it to it. It really impacted his action as when the arm goes away from the body, it doesn’t rotate in a straight line.
“Natarajan’s issue was that at the point of loading, his bowling arm was going away from the body instead of loading close to the chin (which is considered ideal), Once the bowling arm starts going away, the rotation means that the hand doesn’t move like a pulley in a straight line when it comes down at the time of front-foot landing. When that is the case, there is likely to be a slight flexion,” said Subramaniam.
Subramaniam further added how the entire process for long and rigorous since they had to start over right from his run-up to the delivery stride. After remodelling his action, T Natarajan would just bowl to one single stump, later on, he started bowling at the batsman.
“We went step by step and focused on each aspect of his bowling action. We started with just the run-up, then made him do a 2-step drill where he loads under the chin and finishes his action. This went on for a couple of months. Later, he began bowling with just a stump to target and then gradually began bowling to batsmen. It was a long and rigorous process. It was a trial by fire, but in hindsight, we were perhaps unknowingly preparing him for international cricket,” said Subramaniam.
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