Former Indian cricketer, Sanjay Manjrekar reckons that the rise of fast bowler T Natarajan, especially in T20s will put someone like Moammed Shami under the pump to maintain his position in the team. Natarajan managed to scalp 3 wickets for 30 runs from his 4 overs to help India beat Australia by 13 runs in the first T20I at the Manuka Oval. He had earlier made his ODI debut in the final match of the series at the same venue in which he bagged a couple of wickets in the victorious cause.

Labeled as the new yorker king from India, Natarajan replaced Shami on both ODI debut and Jasprit Bumrah in T20I debut which is why Manjrekar said the seasoned pacer will now be under pressure to keep his place in the shortest format.

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Talking about Natarajan on Sony Six, Sanjay Manjrekar said, “What he has done is he has put Mohammed Shami under pressure as a T20I bowler. Now India will be really tempted to have him along with Bumrah as one of his seamers. This is a guy who can bowl at the death. If you have Bumrah and Natarajan, it just puts pressure on Shami because Chahar is from a different school of swing.”

T Natarajan grabbed a lot of eyeballs, especially of the India selectors with some fine performances in the Indian Premier League. The Sunrisers Hyderabad pacer left quite a few in awe with his ability to bowl yorkers consistently. He topped the yorker charts in IPL 2020 and finished with 16 wickets in as many matches for David Warner’s SRH.

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Describing the same, Manjrekar said, “It’s a great story purely because this is a guy who has come out of nowhere. Today, by playing his first T20I and bowling so well there was a wicket he took off a long ball of Maxwell. He is not a bowler who will get you wickets only with the yorkers when the batsmen are trying to slog you. I just find him amazing. A couple of years ago, who would have thought?”