T Natarajan
Left-arm pacer T Natarajan has been added as Navdeep Saini's back-up ahead of the three-match ODI series against Australia, set to start with the first game at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on November 27 (Friday).
Ahead of the start of the multi-series tour, Natarajan, initially drafted into India's T20I squad for the tour, was slotted to the ODI squad on Thursday. The All-India Senior Selection Committee went with as a back-up Natarajan after pacer Navdeep Saini complained of a back spasm.
With the much-awaited series, India will return to international cricket after over eight months of coronavirus hiatus. The ODI series will follow three-match T20I series before India begin their defence in the Border Gavaskar Trophy from the first Test at Adelaide from December 17.
With his yorkers and ability to bowl at the death, Natarajan had left his mark in the recently-concluded IPL 2020. The 29-year-old had scalped 16 wickets in 16 games while donning the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) jersey. His excellent yorker to dismiss Royal Challengers Bangalore's AB de Villiers was even hailed as best delivery of the tournament by a bunch of fans.
India’s ODI squad: Virat Kohli (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan.
Recently, the BCCI had also shared a video of Natarajan bowling in the nets for the first time after receiving maiden India call-up.
"We have seen him bowl with a lot of success in the @IPL and here is @Natarajan_91 bowling in the #TeamIndia nets for the first time after his maiden India call-up! A dream come true moment," BCCI had tweeted.
