Ind vs Aus 1st T20I: Team India pacer T Natarajan makes his T20I debut

India vs Australia 1st T20I – Natarajan makes debut: Team India Pacer T Natarajan on Friday was handed his debut T20I cap by fellow fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah and is set to feature in the opening T20I of three-match series against Australia.

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The BCCI took to twitter to share the video of Natarajan recieving his maiden T20I cap by Bumrah and captioned the post, “Onwards and upwards! After his ODI debut, @Natarajan_91 will today play his maiden T20I game for #TeamIndia. He gets his 🧢 from @Jaspritbumrah93 #AUSvIND”

Onwards and upwards!

After his ODI debut, @Natarajan_91 will today play his maiden T20I game for #TeamIndia. He gets his 🧢 from @Jaspritbumrah93 #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/hfDsw2Tycu

— BCCI (@BCCI) December 4, 2020

Notably, Natarajan recently made his ODI debut in the third game against Australia at the Manuka Oval in Canberra and India skipper Virat Kohli handed the cap to the 29-year-old bowler before the match. In his debut game, he returned figures of 2-70 in his ten overs including a maiden.

He bagged two crucial wickets of Marcus Labuschagne and Ashton Agar and derailed Australia’s run-chase as India registered a 13-run win in the final ODI and opened their account in the ODI Super League while Australia took the series 2-1.

The speedster from Tamil Nadu gained popularity in the latest edition of Indian Premier League where he was labelled as the ‘yorker machine’. Natarajan played for Kings XI Punjab and bagged 16 wickets in as many games in the 13th edition of the cash-rich league.

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His performance in the IPL handed him an India call-up. He was first included in the shortest format squad and later on added as back-up in the ODI side by the BCCI. This decision was taken as pacer Navdeep Saini complained of back spasm.

Meanwhile, India were put to bat first in the first T20I after Australia skipper Aaron Finch won the toss and opted to bowl first in Canberra.

While Virat Kohli and co. will eye revenge for the ODI series loss, Australia will have a golden chance to regain the World No.1 spot as the Men Down Under are just a win away to return to the top of the ICC T20 Team Rankings list.

Currently England holds the No.1 spot in the shortest format of the game with 275 rating points in 25 matches. Australia too have the same rating points in 22 games but aer behind in the total points. While the Three Lions have 6,877 points, the Kangaroos have 6,047 points.

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Meanwhile, India too have a chance to climb up in rankings.

Team India are currently at No.3 with 266 rating points in 35 games. If the Virat Kohl-men want to become No.2, they will have to clean sweep the three-match T20 series.

Cricket