"Let's try him out in the Chennai league" - DC pacer reveals interesting tale of how he started playing tennis ball cricket

Delhi Capitals (DC) pacer T Natarajan revealed an interesting tale of how he started playing tennis ball cricket. It was in the Chennai league where he played tennis ball cricket for the first time.

The DC quick revealed that it was through one of his brother's friends, who used to play fourth division and tennis ball cricket. He watched him and asked his brother to let him try out in the Chennai league.

"In our small village we didn't know that there is a way to advance your cricket career by playing in Chennai, reach the next stage, if you play well here, you can go to the next level. Nobody knew about this back then. That's when a friend of my brother named Jayaprakash, played fourth division cricket, he also played tennis ball cricket, he recognized my talent and asked my brother to let me try out. Whether he gets in or not let's try him out in the Chennai league. That was the first time I played tennis ball cricket for BSNL," he said (1:29) (via FanCode).

Natarajan then went on to talk about how he advanced from tennis ball cricket to division cricket and eventually played for his state, Tamil Nadu.

"My brother asked the coach if my boy performs well will you send him to the next stage and the coach said if he performs well I definitely will. I kept advancing every year. From 4th division to 2nd division to 1st division and then Tamil Nadu. My career kept moving forward. At every stage I was helped by good people everywhere. It was a blessing for me. This is how it started," he added. (2:40)

Natrajan has played 21 first-class matches and has picked up 67 wickets. He has also played 25 List A and 97 T20 matches, bagging 32 and 104 wickets respectively. He has also represented India, having played a single Test, two ODIs, and four T20Is so far.

---

"My bowling action came naturally to me with the tennis ball" - DC pacer T Natarajan

Further, the DC pacer also spoke about his love for bowling, which did not make him see any difference between a tennis ball and a cricket ball.

"It's just the love for bowling. If you ask me the difference between tennis ball and cricket ball, I swear I don't know the difference. All I know is I can keep bowling however long you ask me to bowl. I don't see the difference at all. If you give me the ball and ask me to bowl, I would be able to bowl an hour or two. Because of my love for bowling I cannot tell the difference at all," he said. (0:26)

He also revealed that his action came naturally to him while bowling with the tennis ball.

"My bowling action came naturally to me with the tennis ball. What I do now is what I did back then. The only difference was the ball. I did not know that back then." (0:52)

Natarajan was acquired for a massive price of ₹10.75 crore by DC during the mega auction ahead of the IPL 2025 season. However, he played only two games in the entire season and did not pick up a single wicket. DC finished fifth on the table after the league stage, failing to make it to the playoffs.