IPL 2023: SRH head coach Brian Lara hails Natarajan despite loss to CSK

After an injury setback, Natarajan has returned to high-profile competitive cricket with the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and had expressed his eagerness to do well.

Lara said T. Natarajan is someone who has always held his head high and never shirked responsibility. | Photo Credit: SPORTZPICS for IPL

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) head coach Brian Lara here on Friday said that he has “great respect” for left-arm pacer T. Natarajan since he never shirks the responsibility of bowling the “hard overs.”

Speaking after his team’s seven-wicket loss to Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Lara said that the team felt “the outfield had no dew on it” because of which Mayank Dagar instead of Natarajan came on as the impact player with the team hoping to “put a stranglehold” on CSK with spin.

“One thing, I’ve got great respect for Nattu because he’s the one that really eventually bowls a lot of the hard overs.

You know, he bowls that fifth or sixth over, he comes back at the death, and the batters are pretty much looking to pounce on him as much as possible. And he’s always held his head high, never shirked responsibility.

“So, as I said, I have great, great respect for him. In terms of today (Friday), Nattu was our obvious choice to come on as an impact player in the second half. But when we checked, the outfield had no dew on it.

And we felt that the likes of Jadeja and Theekshana bowled well; even Moeen Ali. So, we felt that if we could sort of get through the Powerplay with the ball, we could put a stranglehold on them with spin,” he said in the post-match press conference.

After an injury setback, Natarajan has returned to high-profile competitive cricket with the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and had expressed his eagerness to do well.