mid-day’s 42nd anniversary: Net gains, but only after some pain

Tamil Nadu cricketer T Natarajan’s innovative training methods helped him make India cut and history Down Under

mid-day's 42nd anniversary: Net gains, but only after some pain

T Natarajan

T Natarajan, 30
Pace bowler made Indian cricket history by making his Test, ODI and T20I debut during one tour of Australia in 2020-21 after being chosen as a net bowler

Expect the unexpected. The tag suits T Natarajan to the T (no pun intended). When he started terrorising batsmen with unplayable yorkers in tennis-ball cricket in his village Chinnappampatti in Tamil Nadu, the left-arm pacer never thought he would bowl with a leather ball one day. That he would move from Salem to Chennai to play division cricket was never on the cards. Natarajan’s priority was to support his family of seven—father (a daily wage worker at a textile unit), mother (who sold chicken at a street-side stall), three sisters and a brother. And local cricket was a great platform as the prize money went to the family’s kitty.

Free accommodation for three years at the guesthouse provided by his employers, Chemplast Sanmar was something he never imagined. Being bought for a whopping Rs 3 crore by Kings XI Punjab in the 2017 IPL players auction after just one season of the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) was overwhelming. It made him a millionaire overnight which helped him pay off his family’s debts and also build a proper, spacious house for them.

Being on the plane as a net bowler with the Indian team for a tour Down Under in December 2020 was surreal. However, what then happened—his international debut in all the three formats (Test, ODI and T20I)—all on one tour of Australia was unprecedented in India’s cricketing history. For the record, India first played a Test in 1932, figured in one-day international cricket first in 1974 and 2006 was the year in which the country played its maiden T20 international.

“The main objective was to learn from the senior bowlers in the Indian team. I never imagined what was in store for me. Making the cut in the Indian team on that tour was never thought of. The aim was to learn the Indian team’s culture and work ethic. I didn’t do anything different in Australia. Whatever I was doing with my IPL team [Sunrisers Hyderabad], I replicated in Australia,” Natarajan, 30, told mid-day while recovering from a knee surgery, which he underwent this year. He aims for a mid-August return to cricket.

Nattu, as he is fondly called by his India teammates, faced the most challenging period of his career during the first Coronavirus-forced national lockdown in March 2020. Natarajan too headed home in the hope that the situation would ease in a few weeks. But that never happened and the lockdown was extended. He followed his club’s online training programmes. “They used to be held five days a week. I followed that programme religiously,” he said.

However, a lack of gym facilities affected his fitness regime at home.

Not one to complain, Natarajan made the most of things around him to ensure his weight training was unaffected. He would carry a 20-litre water container on his shoulders and sprint on his terrace. His bed would become his support for push-ups and his metal staircase leading up to his terrace would help him work on his back.

“These were my own ideas. I didn’t want to sit back and say, ‘oh, the gyms are locked, so I don’t focus on my weight training. I knew this [lockdown] was the perfect time to work on my fitness and eat healthy food daily. I wanted to make the most of that time at home,” he said.

Also Read: mid-day's 42nd anniversary: An all-rounder in the true sense

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No. of wickets T Natarajan took during the Australia tour

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