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India vs Australia: 'His life's direction has changed in the last 44 days,' Ajay Jadeja lauds debutant T Natarajan
The dream continues for Natarajan, who became the first Indian cricketer to make debuts in all three formats for India on the same tour with Jadeja lauding the 29-year-old for keeping calm and hardly showing any nerves.
Former India batsman Ajay Jadeja has spoken highly of T Natarajan, who made his debut for India. Natarajan, who has made his debut in all three formats since November end impressed with his bowling in the Brisbane Test, finishing with 3/78 including the wickets of Matthew Wade and centurion Marnus Labuschagne, whom he dismissed in back-to-back overs.
The dream continues for Natarajan, who became the first Indian cricketer to make debuts in all three formats for India on the same tour with Jadeja lauding the 29-year-old for keeping calm and hardly showing any nerves. In fact, on Day 1, Natarajan’s first spell read 6-1-8-0 before he ended the day with returns of 2/63.
"You feel very happy for him because of the sort of journey he has had. His life's direction has changed in the last 44 days. He was not selected in the T20 format also and came in as a replacement for the injured Chakravarthy. He bowled 20 overs on the first day, so he has shown that he has the stamina. Out of the 63 runs he conceded, 15-odd runs came in the last couple of overs. So, he was economical and because of that he got two wickets as well," Jadeja said on the Extraaa Innings Show on Sony Sports Network.
Natarajan has had a memorable couple of months. The left-arm quick from Tamil Nadu replaced the injured Varun Chakravarthy in India’s T20I squad for the tour of Australia before being added to the ODI set-up as a back up for Navdeep Saini, who had complained of back spasms. He made his debut in the third ODI and grabbed 2/70. Natarajan then subsequently played the three T20Is where he picked up six wickets. He was added to India’s Test squad as a replacement for the injured Umesh Yadav and became India’s 300th Test player.
"You might dream to take 5 wickets on your first day, but if you see realistically it was a very good day for any young player because forget the bowling, you have to first overcome the nerves. He has not even got prepared by playing under-19 or A tours, he has directly played Test cricket from the short format after 40 days. So, I am most impressed by the composure he showed in his bowling," Jadeja said.
