One day his life story could be made into a blockbuster on the silver screen. Such is the toil, the sacrifice, the drama and the roller-coaster ride behind his heroic tale..
Thangarasu Natarajan has seen poverty from close where the next meal was a challenge. Son of a daily wage construction labourer, Natarajan was up against it from the start.
From there, to the present day when he has been picked in the Indian team for the Twenty20 series in Australia. His journey is surely one of guts and glory.
Cricket was his passion. It was also a relief, a catharsis from the life he was leading.
His is a remarkable against-all-odds narrative, from the dusty lanes of Chinnappampatti, a hamlet near Salem, to the demanding highway of the Indian Premier League, and then to Canberra as part of the Indian national team.
From breaching defences with a tennis ball to shattering stumps with a leather ball, from obscurity to making headlines.
At 29, he is not young but each year represents a struggle; he overcame problems with action and injuries.
This IPL was a game-changer for Natarajan. He put his foot on the accelerator for Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Filling out well and extracting more out of his action, Natarajan’s pace was up to the high 130s. And then he sent down yorkers at will.
Natarajan was a late addition to India’s ODI squad as he was initially picked as a replacement for injured Varun Chakravarthy in the T20I squad for Australia. Natarajan replaced Mohammed Shami in the playing XI after the senior pacer was rested in the 3rd ODI.
Natarajan caught the attention of the India selectors with a string of consistent performances in the Indian Premier League. The Sunrisers Hyderabad pacer left quite a few in awe with his ability to bowl yorkers at will. Natarajan topped the yorker charts at IPL 2020 and finished with 16 wickets in as many matches for Sunrisers Hyderabad. Not many can forget the yorker that he bowled to bamboozle AB de Villiers in the IPL 2020 play-offs.
There are two things that stand out about Natarajan. Firstly, he is a skillful player who seems to be confident of his ability. He has mastered the art of bowling the all-important yorkers but he is adequately aware of how and when to use variations. At any level of competitive cricket, nothing helps a bowling team’s cause more than wickets. And that is what Natarajan brings to the table – a wicket-taking option.
Sheer pace is an asset for sure, but in international cricket, bowlers need more. They need to have specific plans and weapons they can go to, instead of just running in and letting loose. And Natarajan possesses that quality, he is a thinking bowler who sets batsmen up.
The other thing that works in his favour is the calm and composed head he has on his shoulders. Be it in the IPL or in the two games he has played for India so far, there has hardly been a time where he lost control of his emotions. Take the moment he dismissed Marnus Labuschagne for his first international wicket or when he cleaned-up Starc with an absolute peach of a delivery Friday, there was nothing more than a fist pump and a glance to the heavens from him.
PNN/Agencies