Chennai: He has broken through the shackles of poverty by bowling pinpoint yorkers at will. Fast bowler Thangarasu Natarajan has done almost everything he could for his family. However Thangarasu Natarajan has failed to convince his mother to give up selling chicken on the roadside. That she wouldn’t as she feels it had helped the family survive tough times, said Jayaprakash, the mentor of Natarajan mentor.
The birth of Natarajan as a death bowling specialist had taken place a few years before the ongoing IPL. Currently Natarajan is rattling the best of batsmen with his yorkers, ball after ball.
In the intervening period, he has managed to build his parents a house. He has seen to it that his sisters get proper education. He has also opened a cricket academy in his Chinnappampatti village in Tamil Nadu’s Salem district. Natarajan has convinced a teammate to not give up the game.
All this while perfecting the art of bowling yorkers and carrying much of Tamil Nadu’s pace bowling hopes on his shoulders.
“I am not surprised as he (Natarajan) has worked very hard. He has gone through a lot. He has overcome injury problems, worked his way back into the state team. He is now doing well when given an opportunity by SRH,” Jayaprakash said Wednesday.
Natarajan was first picked by KXIP in 2017 for rupees three crore. He took three years to come of his age at the big stage. He proved expensive in the six games that he had played in the past.
He was picked by Sunriesrs Hyderabad in 2018 but played his first game for them only this season. In SRH’s win Tuesday over Delhi Capitalsthe pacer played his part perfectly. He hurled a series of yorkers in the innings 14th and 18th over stemming the flow of runs. His spell of 4-0-21-1 included the prize wicket of Australian big-hitter Marcus Stoinis.
“He has settled his family. He has constructed a house for his parents. He has educating his siblings,” his mentor informed.
The 29-year old is also helping out many people who used to play with him. Among them is G Periyaswamy, who rose to prominence in last year’s Tamil Nadu Premier League.
“Natarajan continues to help a lot of young cricketers and those who played tennis ball cricket with him. He made sure that Periyaswamy did not give up the game by convincing his family that there was a future for him in cricket,” Jayaprakash said.
Avinash Khandelwal, fielding coach of the Tamil Nadu team also praised Natarajan’s grit. He said Natarajan has always been known to possess a lethal yorker in the state’s cricket circles.
“Yeah, Nattu works on his yorkers a lot. To bowl yorkers is not easy and to execute it under pressure is another thing. That is because he works on it. He does it regularly in events like TNPL and is now showing he can do it at the highest level,” the Khandelwal said.
