The 2020 IPL season has been ‘talent well’ if we were to look at the number of players that have made their mark in this season. Whether its Varun Chakravarthy, Ruturaj Gaikwad or T Natarajan, the players have used the biggest platform in Indian cricket to their advantage as both Varun and Natarajan have gone on to receive national side call ups after the conclusion of the season. Recently after Varun Chakravarthy was ruled out of the Australia tour, it was Natarajan who was added to the T20 side as his replacement.
Today, we talk about T Natarajan who has been one of the biggest finds of the season as many hail him the future of Indian cricket and also someone who could bowl in tandem with Jasprit Bumrah in the death overs because of his sublime execution of the yorkers.
In the 2020 IPL season, Natarajan bowled 64 yorkers which is the most number of yorkers bowled in the season as he is only first to Jason Holder who had bowled 25 yorkers in the limited matches he has played. In the 16 matches, Natarajan played in this season he has managed to pick up 16 wickets at an average of 31.50.
In the absence of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, it was T Natarajan who stepped up for the Sunrisers Hyderabad bowling unit taking the prime responsibility of bowling at the death overs. In the eliminator match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Natarajan bowled an unplayable yorker to AB de Villiers to send him packing when he was just starting to look dangerous out in the middle.
It won’t be wrong to say that Natarajan has been of the best fast bowlers of the season if the accuracy of variations is used as a criterion for measuring performance. Which is why today we take a look at five unknown facts about T Natarajan.
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Let’s take a look at 5 unknown facts about T Natarajan:
1. Natarajan’s father was a daily-wage labourer in a textile mill and his mother was running a roadside food stall when Natarajan moved to Chennai after being spotted by his coach A Jayaprakash playing tennis ball cricket.
2. Natarajan was snapped up by Kings XI Punjab in the 2017 IPL auction for a staggering ₹3 crores (US$420,000). Though he was picked up for a healthy price, Natarajan played just 6 matches wherein he picked up just 2 wickets.
3. Natarajan with help of his friends runs an academy in his village, which handpicks rural players and gives them quality coaching free of cost
4. In the 2018 IPL auction, Natrajan was picked up by Sunrisers Hyderabad for a mere sum of ₹40 lakh (US$56,000). In the 2020 IPL season, Natrajan played all 16 matches for Sunrisers Hyderabad wherein he picked up 16 wickets at an average of 31.50.
5. In the 2019 season of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Natarajan took 13 wickets in 11 matches for Tamil Nadu and played a major role in the side’s campaign to the final of the tournament.
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