What a tour this has been for young left-arm pacer T Natarajan. From not being in the initial squads to making his debut in all three formats, the last couple of months have been a rollercoaster ride for Natarajan, who has put his native village Chinnappampatti on the world map.
In the wake of his consistent performances for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2020, many backed T Natarajan to be in the T20 squad. However, he missed by a whisker but was later called up as a replacement of Varun Chakravarthy. He made an immediate impact and was soon included in the ODI squad as a back-up for Navdeep Saini and made an immediate impact.
T Natarajan becomes India’s 300th Test player
Similarly, another untimely injury forced the management to draft in T Natarajan in the red-ball cricket and the left-arm pacer went on to make his debut in the fourth and final match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Brisbane. Incidentally, Natarajan is yet to see his new-born daughter because of IPL and subsequently the tour of Australia, and the wait has been absolutely worth it.
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The 29-year-old became the 300th Test cricketer for India when bowling coach Bharat Arun presented him with the cap amid huge cheers. Meanwhile, T Natarajan also became the first Indian cricketer to make his debut in all three formats in a single tour.
Watch the video here:
The stuff dreams are made of. A perfect treble for @Natarajan_91 as he is presented with #TeamIndia's Test 🧢 No. 300. It can't get any better! Natu is now an all-format player. #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/cLYVBMGfFM
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 14, 2021
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Meanwhile, India handed another debut cap to Washington Sundar, who was until now a net bowler, along with T Natarajan. In total, they made four changes bringing in Shardul Thakur and Mayank Agarwal as well as Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin failed to recover in the morning session of the match day.
The visitors made a good start after put to bowl first with Mohammed Siraj removing David Warner early while Shardul Thakur got rid of Marcus Harris with his first delivery. Since then, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne bailed the innings to go for lunch but Washington Sundar struck soon after the break to remove Smith to get his debut Test wicket.
With three down, India will look to break Australia’s batting as soon as possible to take an early advantage in the game.
