Is T Natarajan the solution for India’s missing left-arm pacer?

The Indian National Team has been looking desperately for a left-arm pace bowler for quite a while now. The "Blue Army" has failed to produce any quality left-arm pace bowler in recent times. Due to this, the selection committee has come under a lot of scrutinies.

In its defense, the selection committee might argue that the bowlers fail to deliver when given the opportunity. This clearly means that the bowlers chosen were not well prepared or lacked the quality required for this responsibility. Many bowlers, including Barinder Sen, Jaydev Unadkat, and Khaleel Ahmed have played for India in the past. However, each one of them failed to deliver consistently.

India has had its fair share of quality left-arm pace bowlers in the past years. These include some top bowlers such as Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, and RP Singh. None of the bowlers after them has shown quality and consistency similar to that of these bowlers. The quality of bowlers has been deteriorating ever since.

Can Natarajan quench India’s thirst for a left-arm pace bowler?

T Natarajan was one of IPL’s hidden gems this season. He quickly became the talk of the town after he bowled 21 yorkers in IPL 2020. Natarajan was also one of SRH’s best bowlers, picking up 16 wickets in 16 matches. He bowled so well that VVS Laxman has backed him to be a constant starter for the Indian National Team.

Natarajan was added to the Indian squad after Varun Chakravarthy picked up an injury. The only concern is whether Natarajan is different from the other bowlers with whom India has experimented previously. One reason why this might be true is because of Natarajan’s ability to nail the york consistently. None of the aforementioned bowlers possessed such sort of ability.

If you bowl a yorker so well, you are bound to trouble the opposing batsmen. This was exactly what happened in IPL 2020. Natarajan completely bamboozled batsmen with his bowling ability and hence was instrumental to SRH’s qualification.

For Natarajan, there is still a long journey to cover. However, if he manages to bowl as he did in IPL 2020, it could cut short soon. The only thing that Natarajan needs to focus on is consistency. Everyone has huge hopes for Natarajan. The Indian committee has backed Natarajan to deliver them what they lack. We wish that the bowler lives up to his hype in the series against Australia.

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