Meanwhile, 2017 hit the boards and IPL season is once again ready to freeze out cricket lovers across the country. Various progressive patterns were introduced in International cricket ideologies, despite all the new updates, Indian Premium League has made quite an amazing impression. IPL now became the diverse narration of the 20 over matches with some interesting flavours.

Prices of the players, the players in the teams and the colourful embodiments in the whole process is something people go gaga about. IPL auction was done this year too and this time some surprising things happened in the team formations. Yes! the change and the surprise are totally for good.

Since two years IPL has been playing a vital role in roping in the new players for TeamIndia to play in an International format representing their respective countries. Many new players got a place in India’s blue team by performing well in IPL seasons. Most of the successful players, however, had a tough time financially and mentally, anyway, they achieved it and that is the thing that made them unique and legendary.

This time too here’s an upcoming star who reached heights beating all the odds in his way. Thangarasu Natarajan, a 25-year-old budding cricketer from Chinnappampatti, a village 36 kms away from Salem. Natarajan loved this cricket too much, though he didn’t have any idea of playing for international cricket, his will and determination made him grab a place in Kings XI Punjab at a whopping amount of Rs 3 Crores, that surprisingly started with a base price of Rs 30 Lakhs.

Coming to the family background, Natarajan, the eldest of five siblings used to play cricket with his friends from a young age. However, he only played with the tennis ball, that too on an uneven patch of land that acted as a makeshift cricket ground. Till the age of 20, he had never even seen a proper cricket ground, let alone represented either his school or college.

Something miracle happened then, A. Jayaprakash, a well-wisher from Natarajan’s village, urged him to work harder and excel at the game. Jayaprakash was convinced about the young boy’s abilities and potential to make it big. He left no stone un-turned to motivate and support Natarajan. Inspired by his fellow villager’s encouraging words, the young lad moved to the city and joined a cricket club in Chennai.

This 25-year old’s dazzling yorkers quickly caught the attention of Chennai’s cricketing circles and climbed the rungs. After playing his first match for the BSNL team in Tamil Nadu Cricket Association’s fourth division league, Natarajan joined Vijay Cricket Club for a year. After playing for them in 2012-13 in the first division, he moved to Jolly Rovers, a popular club that has fielded big names like Murali Vijay and R Ashwin.

Natarajan made his Ranji debut in 2015 against West Bengal at the legendary Eden Gardens in Kolkata. It was all going great until Natarajan was reported for a suspect action. In the sport of cricket, strict rules govern the method of bowling. When a player is found by the umpire to have delivered the ball contrary to those rules, he is said to have a suspect action and Natarajan suffered this for a while, which later led him to work for bettering his bowling style.

However, notified sportsmen from BCCI panel like Sunil Subramanian, D. Vasu and M. Venkataramana, Natarajan modified his bowling run-up and loading to conform with the rules. His mentors at Jolly Rovers, Bharat Reddy and Jayakumar, were at his side throughout this tough journey.

Besides all this, his successful stint for Dindigul Dragons in the inaugural edition of Tamil Nadu Premier League in 2016 remained as a breakthrough in his career with a towering speed of 135kmph.

His exceptionally challenging performance including a four-wicket innings haul against Railways and Uttar Pradesh in the latest season caught the attention of the IPL scouts. Consistent performances for two years also earned him a call-up to 2016’s Ranji Trophy.

Describing the important role played by TNPL throughout his career, he said:

“There was a lot of pressure when I was picked to play in TNPL. But I am thankful to people like Ashwin, Vijay and L Balaji (Tamil Nadu bowling coach) who instilled the belief in me that I was good enough at the Ranji Trophy level. It was my dream to Ranji Trophy which has been fulfilled and now I look forward to meeting people in the IPL and learning from them.”

Well acknowledged for his great speed, Natarajan is today considered one of the brightest prospects to come up from Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, he is going to meet his all time favourite Australian bowler Mitchell Johnson on the tournament. Johnson is now part of the Mumbai Indians team, while Natarajan will be playing for Kings XI Punjab for IPL 2017.