T Natarajan’s wait for a return to action finally ended on Monday. The left-arm pacer will play his first game of IPL 2025 with his new franchise, Delhi Capitals. Natarajan returns to Hyderabad for the SRH vs DC clash, which has been 344 days since his last IPL game. The 34-year-old was out with a shoulder injury.
Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel, Karun Nair, KL Rahul(w), Axar Patel(c), Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan
Nattu, here in Hyderabad — here in
! pic.twitter.com/yVKJOShY7Y
— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) May 5, 2025
Natarajan makes return to IPL, faces former team SRH on Capitals debut
T Natarajan has struggled with injuries and missed the first half of the IPL 2025 season for the Delhi Capitals. Bought for a whopping Rs 10.75 crore in the IPL 2025 auction, the left-arm seamer was consigned to the bench with DC opting to trust the duo of Mukesh Kumar and Mohit Sharma.
However, with playoffs dangling by a thread, Axar Patel has turned to the 34-year-old pacer. DC aim to address its team’s death bowling issues. In his 61-match IPL career, the Tamil Nadu pacer has picked up 67 wickets. His average of 29.38, strike rate of 19.9 and economy of 8.83 are all impressive given he bowls largely in the death overs.
Natarajan last played in the TNPL in July/August and his since been out with a shoulder injury. Such was the severity, the veteran took a call to stay away from red ball cricket to focus on recovery.
His exclusion from the Delhi Capitals lineup was a point of contention earlier in the season. Team mentor Kevin Pietersen argued that while Natarajan is a gun bowler, DC could only field 12 players. Now with the campaign sliding, KP now seem to have found a combination to include the veteran pacer.
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