Introduction
There are IPL stories and then there is T. Natarajan’s story. His father ran powerloom machines in Salem, Tamil Nadu, for a living. His mother sold pakodas at a roadside stall. The family’s combined income was enough to get by, not enough to buy cricket equipment without sacrifice. Natarajan was discovered playing with a taped rubber ball. He got his first proper season ball at age 20 — a milestone many middle-class cricketers reach at age 10. By 2020, he was India’s best left-arm death-over bowler in T20 cricket. By 2021, he was the first Indian to debut in all three formats on the same overseas tour.
The Journey to IPL — From Salem to Sunrisers
Natarajan’s cricket career almost didn’t start. His family’s financial constraints meant that cricket, which requires expensive equipment and coaching, was a luxury they struggled to support. He played rubber-ball cricket for years before getting access to a leather ball in club matches. His unusual left-arm action — high-arm, classical, with natural in-swing to right-handers — was self-taught rather than coached. He was discovered at a Tamil Nadu Premier League trial in 2016, impressing scouts with his ability to bowl accurate, swinging deliveries at 130+ km/h. SRH bought him in the 2017 IPL auction for Rs. 3 crore — a transformative amount for his family, who had spent 20 years in financial difficulty.
The 2020 Australia Tour — One of Cricket’s Great Moments
Natarajan’s journey reached its most extraordinary moment on the 2020-21 tour of Australia. He went as a net bowler — someone brought to help the main squad prepare, not expected to play. When injuries depleted the India squad beyond any expected parameter, Natarajan was called up to play. He debuted in the T20Is, then the ODIs, then the Tests — the first Indian ever to debut in all three formats on the same tour. His debut came days after the birth of his daughter back in India, whom he had not yet met. He took wickets on debut in all three formats. He watched his daughter’s birth via video call from a quarantine hotel room in Australia. Cricket has many remarkable stories. This one is in a small category of its own.
Natarajan’s IPL Legacy
In the IPL, Natarajan’s contribution to SRH’s bowling attacks over multiple seasons has been the in-swing yorker to right-handers — a specific delivery that SRH’s analysts identified as a match-winning option and built bowling strategies around. He has not always been consistent — injuries have interrupted his progress, and the step up to Test cricket proved demanding — but his presence in any IPL squad gives a franchise access to one of the few left-arm death-over bowlers in world cricket who can bowl yorkers reliably under pressure. His story, beyond the cricket, is the most powerful answer to the question of what the IPL’s talent identification system does: it finds the T. Natarajans of India, in Salem and Nagpur and Assam, and gives them the platform that their talent deserves.
DID YOU KNOW? T. Natarajan was not in India’s original squad for the 2020-21 Australia tour — he went as a net bowler. He ended up debuting in all three formats, becoming the first Indian ever to achieve this on a single overseas tour, and took wickets in each format on debut.
Final Verdict From rubber-ball cricket in Salem to Test debut in Sydney. T. Natarajan’s story is what the IPL is supposed to do: find the talent that the traditional system never reaches, give it a stage, and let it show India exactly what cricket can look like when opportunity meets ability.