T. Natarajan has had the summer of his life on the Australian tour this year. The left-arm pacer who was drafted with the squad initially for the tour as a net bowler ended up making his international debut in all formats. He became the first-ever Indian player to make his international debut across all the formats on a single tour. The pacer who was touted as a white-ball specialist by many, was at the right place, at the right time and ended up making his debut in red-ball cricket. In the first innings of the Gabba Test, he ended with figures of 3 for 78.

Vice-captain Rohit Sharma heaped on praises for the Tamil Nadu bowler in a press conference after the day’s play. The opening batsman, who himself made 44 runs on the third day’s play, talked about the discipline with which the pacer has bowled during this tour. He also pointed out that the first spell in which the left-arm bowler was quite accurate. 

T. Natarajan is a bright prospect for us, he showed a lot of discipline: Rohit Sharma

“Natarajan is a bright prospect for us, he showed a lot of discipline when he played for India in the white-ball format. He was coming off a good IPL and he carried that confidence into the white-ball series against Australia. Then to have a Test match like that, the first spell he bowled was very accurate, if I have to judge,” said Rohit during a virtual conference. 

The vice-captain further said that the team wants players who can understand their game properly, which is exactly what Natarajan is capable of and it doesn’t look he is playing his first Test of life.

“Somebody who is playing his first Test, we can really say that he understands his bowling really well, it is something that India wants. Natarajan was trying to do what was expected out of him and I think he looks like a bright prospect for sure,” he added.

Natarajan and Washington Sundar showed a lot of character: Sharma

Another boy from Tamil Nadu, Washington Sundar, also made his debut in the lucky turn of incidents. The off-spinner hasn’t played a first-class match since November 2017 but ended up making his debut in the absence of Ravichandran Ashwin. Rohit praised Sundar as well for the performance which he showed.

“They have played some first-class games coming into this Test. Playing against Australia in Australia was never going to be easy. But they showed a lot of character and they understood what the team expected them to do. We wanted to make sure that once Saini walked off, how we can contain and put pressure on Australian batsmen by not giving them easy runs, run-scoring can be easy here as it is a good pitch. Playing their first match, they showed a lot of character and discipline and yes, the team was expecting them to do something and both Sundar and Natarajan did that really well,” the Mumbai batsman said.