T20 World Cup 2021: Chetan Sharma Reveals Why T Natarajan Isn't Included In India's Squad

Chetan Sharma, the chairman of the BCCI selection panel revealed the reason why T Natarajan, the left-arm pacer was not included in India’s T20 World Cup 2021 squad that was named on September 8, 2021. The tournament will be played in the October-November period in the UAE and Oman.

T Natarajan burst onto the scene thanks to his amazing performance for the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2020 season which was played in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Natarajan became the lead pacer for the SRH franchise after Bhuvneshwar Kumar had suffered a hip injury early in the tournament and didn’t participate further.

Soon his performance led him to be named in the Indian T20I squad for the Australia tour and he performed admirably. He played the ODI series as well after injury to another pacer and then played in the fourth Test in Brisbane despite being a net bowler for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after Jasprit Bumrah suffered a niggle.

His fast rise in Indian cricket has been an inspirational story and though he had to leave the IPL 2021 midway due to a knee injury, for which he underwent surgery and has gotten back his fitness in the National Cricket Academy, his name was floated around as the left-arm pace bowling option for the T20 World Cup 2021.

T Natarajan Is On The Injury List And That Is The Reason We Stuck To The Main Guys: Chetan Sharma  

However, as the Indian squad for the ICC tournament was announced, many cricket fans were not happy as T Natarajan’s name was missing from the list. In fact, no left-arm pacer was selected for the T20 World Cup and BCCI selection panel chief Chetan Sharma told ANI the reason behind Natarajan’s exclusion.

“T Natarajan was discussed but he has not played cricket for a long time, he is on the injury list and that is the reason we stuck to the main guys which are our strike bowlers.

Every time there is a thing on the mind of the selectors that you need to have variation, but at the end of the day, the wickets in the UAE will be slower so the selectors decided on three fast-bowlers with Hardik Pandya as the fourth pacer. Even if we wanted to have a left-arm seamer, we would not have been able to fix him in the squad,” said Chetan Sharma.

Natarajan will be seen in action for the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the upcoming second half of the IPL 2021 which begins from September 19 in the UAE.

Also Read: T20 World Cup 2021: MS Dhoni Roped In As India’s Mentor For The Tournament