T Natarajan, India
T Natarajan (Credits: Twitter)

T Natarajan, the latest sensation in Indian cricket, endured a fairytale last five months where he became the first Indian to make his debut in all three formats of the game on a single tour.

After impressing in the IPL, T Natarajan was included as a net bowler for the Australian tour. However, injuries to Varun Chakravarthy, Navdeep Saini in T20Is and ODIs, and a whole host of first-choice bowlers in the Test series ensured that T Natarajan was not only drafted into the Indian squad but also featured in playing 11 in all three formats.

 T Natatajan , India, Australia
T Natatajan with his teammates [Photo-Twitter]
Natarajan emerged as the leading wicket-taker- 6 wickets in 3 games- in the T20I series where he showed remarkable discipline and control over his skills besides impressing in both ODIs and Test cricket.

He received a heroic welcome upon his return to his native village Salem. However, Natarajan is not ready to rest on past laurels. He is now pursuing the ambition of representing Team India in all three formats and in order to achieve that he knows he has to maintain his workload and work on his strength and endurance levels in the upcoming months.

“I am looking to play in all formats and will maintain my workload accordingly. I am keen to work on my strength and endurance levels in the coming months. This is the first time I’ve played for six long months at a stretch in my life. Because I trained continuously during those months of lockdown, I was able to take care of the workload in IPL and in Australia,” T Natarajan told TOI.

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T Natarajan, Zaheer Khan
T Natarajan and Rohit Sharma [Image Credits: Getty]
With him playing continuously for the last 5-6 months, the BCCI has given Natarajan a much-needed rest.

When asked if the team-management has asked him to work on specific things, the fast bowler revealed that he has been asked to work on increasing his endurance, something he admitted that he needs to improve if he wants to feature in all three formats, especially red-ball cricket.

”Having played continuously for the last 5-6 months, BCCI had given me rest for some weeks. I have started training from today (Monday) and will continue working on my fitness. If I am aiming to play all three formats, I need to be on top of my fitness. The team management wants me to improve my endurance as they seem happy with my skills. Red-ball cricket is a test of endurance,” he said.

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