The Indian fast bowler, T Natarajan celebrated his elevation from being selected as the net bowler to cricket’s most elite level by taking a three-wicket haul as India managed to restrict Australia for 369 on Day 2 of the fourth Test in Brisbane on Saturday. His fairytale rise in international cricket has been one of the most heartening cricketing stories.
The BCCI had initially named him as a net bowler for the Australian tour. However, due to the various injury issues in the Indian team helped T Natarajan to make his debut in all formats Down Under. Recently, he made another record of becoming the first Indian player to make debuts in all 3 formats — T20I, ODI, and Test on the same tour.
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T Natarajan is the 17th player overall to do so. He becomes the second India player to do so after Bhuvneshwwar Kumar in the same season. He alsoNatarajan joined former India pacer, RP Singh, in an elite list as he cleaned up the last man Josh Hazlewood to return with impressive figures of 3 for 78 on his Test debut. Notably, this is the 2nd best figures for an Indian left-arm pacer on debut after RP Singh’s 4 for 89 against Pakistan back in 2005/06.
Best figures in debut innings by a left-arm seamer (India)
- 4/89 RP Singh v Pakistan Faisalabad 2005/06
- 3/78 T NATARAJAN v Australia Brisbane 2020/21 *
- 3/97 SS Nyalchand v Pakistan Lucknow 1952/53
Another debutant for India Washington Sundar also managed to take 3 for 89 and Shardul Thakur had figures of 3 for 94 in only his second Test match. India, who lost the toss and were asked to bowl first on the opening day, are shorthanded in the attack, with seamer Navdeep Saini having suffered a groin injury.
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The series is tied 1-1 and India required to draw the game in order to retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy. But the inexperienced Indian bowling attack did exceptionally well to contain Australia despite missing pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and leading spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
