Former India head coach Ravi Shastri recently gave his views on the national team’s pace attack. Shastri was the coach of the Indian team during the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. Despite having the biggest IPL stars in the team, India crashed out of the mega event before the semifinals.
In an interview with ESPNCricinfo recently, Shastri felt that India could have done a better job if they had someone like T Natarajan in the squad. Natarajan is a member of the Sunrisers Hyderabad team in IPL 2022. The left-arm fast bowler was in good form yesterday.
He took two wickets for Sunrisers Hyderabad in their battle against Lucknow Super Giants. Ravi Shastri was happy with the way Natarajan bowled for the Sunrisers in Mumbai and said he should have been in the World Cup team. Commenting on his performance, the former India head coach said:
“Very happy for him. We missed him in the World Cup. He would’ve been a certainty had he been fit. He got injured against England when we were playing the ODI series and we really missed him (in the World Cup). He’s that specialist death bowler, bowls those yorkers very skillfull. He’s got great control.”
T Natarajan made his debut for India when Ravi Shastri was coach but did not play World Cup because of an injury
T Natarajan’s rise was one of the most inspirational cricketing stories in the last few years. The left-arm fast bowler does not belong to a rich family. He had to struggle a lot before playing international cricket for India.
In 2020, Natarajan traveled to Australia as a net bowler. He then received his maiden cap in all three formats for India. He was impressive, and it seemed like he would become India’s left-arm pacer. However, his injury problems did not allow Natarajan to play consistently.
It will be interesting to see if the selectors pick him for the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 later this year.
