Hardly got bread for two times
T. Natarajan, who plays for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL, has the skill of throwing yorkers in all six balls of an over. Natarajan may have everything today, but at some point he saw severe poverty. Sometimes it was difficult to get even two meals a day. To run the household, the mother used to sell meat at a roadside cart and the father worked as a daily wage worker.
Rs 3 crore received in IPL 2017
Despite these difficulties, he did not give up his desire to become a cricketer. Earned name in street-village and district by playing tennis ball tournament. Gradually, he became involved in domestic cricket with his left arm pace bowling. In the year 2017, Natarajan’s fortunes turned when Virender Sehwag caught sight of him. Viru was then the mentor of Punjab in IPL. They bought Natarajan for Rs 3 crore, which was 30 times more than his base price of Rs 10 lakh. Kings XI Punjab played six matches to this left arm pacer, got only two wickets. From here Natarajan had understood that if he had to move forward, this much would not work.
IPL 2020 Turning Point
The next year i.e. in 2018, he joined Sunrisers Hyderabad. Didn’t get to play here, but the talent got polished. Natarajan’s career took a turn in the year 2020 after sweating it out in the nets for two years. This season proved to be the turning point for him. 16 wickets in 16 matches with very economical bowling. Forced the big legends of world cricket to kneel down with his yorker. Due to this game, he got entry in Team India.
Debut for Team India
Although Natarajan had got a place as a net bowler on the Australia tour, but he was forced to feed after all the greats were injured one after the other. This young pacer from Tamil Nadu turned disaster into opportunity and made his debut for Team India in all three formats ie Test, T20 and ODI. He also became the only Indian player to do so.
what will be the return
But the wheel of time has turned once again. In the year 2021 IPL, he was able to play only two matches first due to Corona and then due to injury. Since then, he is running out of Team India as well. He took 18 wickets in 11 matches of IPL 2022, but it was not enough to make a place in the Indian team. It has to be seen how Natarajan does for his team Hyderabad this time and whether he can make a place in the Indian team.