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Natarajan
Parthiv Patel has reckoned that selecting left-arm pacer T Natarajan will send a wrong message. According to Patel, giving the Test cap to a player only based on his IPL performances can be a mistake.
T Natarajan is in the squad as a replacement for the injured Umesh Yadav. The seamer had a meteoric rise in his cricketing career in the last few months. He emerged as a yorker-specialist in IPL 2020 and picked up 16 wickets in all the 16 games he played.
Considering his brilliant performance in IPL, the 29-year-old was included to India's touring contingent as a nets bowler. He got an opportunity to replace injured players in the ODI and T20I squads. He performed superbly in the white-ball series.
Before the third Test at Sydney, he was one step away from his Test debut. However, the Indian team management decided to go with Navdeep Saini instead. Parthiv Patel believes that it is still too early for the pacer from Salem.
In the 2014-15 Ranji Trophy season, T Natarajan made his first-class cricket debut for Tamil Nadu. From then onwards, the bowler has played 20 first-class matches and picked up 64 wickets at an average of 27. He also has three 5-wicket hauls in his name.
Parthiv Patel chooses Navdeep Saini over T Natarajan for Sydney Test
Parthiv Patel opined that India should pick 28-year-old Navdeep Saini ahead of T Natarajan. In his opinion, Saini has done everything that Mohammed Siraj had done before making his Test debut in Melbourne. Saini has bagged 128 first-class wickets from 46 matches at a decent average of 28.46. The pacer also has four five-wicket hauls.
In Day one of the third Test, Australia went into Tea in a great position. Team India failed to pick up a wicket in the second session. Will Pucovski and Marnus Labuschagne remained calm and showed great composure to build their innings. Will Pucovski scored a half-century on debut.
The Indian side will regret not taking their chances. Rishabh Pant missed a couple of catches, and the side also missed out on a run-out opportunity. Ajinkya Rahane and the team will hope that the break provides the Indian bowlers with some answers to tackle the Australian batsmen at the Sydney Cricket Ground.