Virender Sehwag Reveals The Reason Behind Him Picking T Natarajan In The 2017 IPL Auctions

Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag has revealed that there were a lot of questions raised when he picked India’s latest sensation, T Natarajan, during his stint with Kings XI Punjab in 2017 based on the southpaw’s exploits in TNPL.

Sehwag was answering a fan’s query on Sony Sports, who have asked him as to how happy he was on seeing T Natarajan make his debut for India.

“I was very happy because when I had picked Natarajan in the IPL for the Kings XI Punjab, everyone was asking questions that this player has come who has not even played domestic cricket and came after playing just the TNPL league, so how he was picked at such a huge price.” Virender Sehwag was quoted as saying by Sportskeeda.

Sehwag revealed that a lot of Tamil Nadu players in the team’s set-up at the time has told him about Natarajan’s whirlwind talent and his ability to nail the yorkers at will.

“I was not bothered about the money but there is a talent. We had a few Tamil Nadu players in our team at the time who told me that he is a very good player who bowls very well in the slog overs and delivers a perfect yorker.” he recalled.

The former opener added that he saw some videos of Natarajan and decided to take him at the auction since KXIP did not have a death specialist. He, however, lamented at the fact that the fast bowler got injured and could not play for the majority of the season.

“I saw his videos and then decided that we will surely take him at the auction because we did not have a death bowler. Unfortunately that year, he had an injury to the elbow or the knee because of which he could not play too many matches. But we won only the matches that he played in and lost all the other matches.” Sehwag said.

‘All the best to T Natarajan’- Virender Sehwag

T Natarajan made his ODI debut for the national team in the third match of the series against Australia at the Manuka Oval.

Sehwag admitted that he was pleasantly surprised at the fact that the Tamil Nadu fast bowler got an opportunity in ODI cricket as he had thought that he would only get a chance in T20Is.

“So I was very excited to see that he was getting an opportunity although I was thinking that he would be given a chance in the T20Is but it was a surprise for me that he was played in the ODIs. But whatever happened was good. All the best to T Natarajan. I hope that he keeps on doing well from here and makes his place in the Indian team.” he added.

Natarajan finished with figures of 2-70 in his quota of ten overs in his debut game.

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