Veteran Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin recently opened up on Indian pacer T Natarajan not finding a place in the four squads for the upcoming 17th edition of the Duleep Trophy as well. He added that the left-arm pacer would have been in consideration had he played red-ball cricket in recent times as well. Ashwin also added that Natarajan hasn’t featured in the red-ball format since his Test debut against Australia at Brisbane in January 2021 as well.
Speaking in his latest YouTube video, Ashwin said: “I feel Natarajan is a fantastic white-ball bowler. He did well in IPL this year. His last first-class match was Australia vs India at Brisbane January 15th in 2021. He has not put himself on the park for the last 3 years. He is broken down when he’s picked and he is not played. We are backing him a lot. I like Natarajan a lot. He is a very good guy. But, just for the sake of it, I won’t say it today. If Natarajan played red-ball cricket and made it to Tamil Nadu, I will definitely say that he should play there.”
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However, he did well for SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) earlier this year. The veteran was the highest wicket-taker for SRH this season, claiming 19 wickets from 14 outings. It is worth mentioning that Natarajan hasn’t played a lot of red-ball
cricket since his knee surgery in 2021. He was part of Tamil Nadu’s squad for the 2024 Ranji Trophy but wasn’t added to the playing XI throughout the competition.
Meanwhile, Ravichandran Ashwin also praised Tamil Nadu’s Baba Indrajith. He lauded the right-handed batter as one of the best players
of spin bowling. Ashwin again shared that Indrajith’s name doesn’t get highlighted a lot because Tamil Nadu haven’t get much success in the Ranji Trophy recently.
“One of the finest players of spin bowling. One of the finest. At this point of time, I have bowled for so many players. I think he is one of the finest players. There is no doubt about that. He is very close. I have been watching him since 2016-2017. He makes a lot of runs. He hits runs
season-to-season. But, Tamil Nadu doesn’t qualify much. That’s why, his name didn’t get hit. Last year, he hit 700 runs until the semi-final. Otherwise, he would have struggled this time. Very, very fine player. He is in a good phase. I really hope, in this Duleep Trophy, he makes it count with a few 100s,” Ravichandran Ashwin concluded.
