IPL 2021 | Injured T Natarajan might need to exit bubble to get his knee assessed, reveals David Warner

04/22/2021

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Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper David Warner revealed that T Natarajan will have to have a scan at some point, but said that the SRH management are apprehensive about the same as it’ll need the pacer to exit and re-enter the bubble. Warner further described the Chepauk pitch as ‘shocking’.

IPL 2020’s breakthrough star T Natarajan being benched by Sunrisers Hyderabad for their clash against Mumbai Indians left a lot of viewers perplexed, but it was then later revealed that the speedster was nursing a knee injury. The same knee injury kept Natarajan out of SRH’s fourth game of the season, versus Punjab, and it remains unclear as to when the Tamil Nadu seamer will be fully fit to return to the starting XI.

If the franchise skipper David Warner is to be believed, it could take quite a while. Speaking post his side’s win versus Punjab, Warner revealed that Natarajan has been battling through a ‘sore knee’ and added that the pacer will need to undergo a scan at some point. Warner, however, revealed that the SRH management are apprehensive about sending Natarajan away as it’ll require the seamer to isolate for seven days owing to exiting the bubble.

"He obviously has a sore knee," Warner said of Natarajan’s injury.

"Given the circumstances in these bubbles, if he goes and gets a scan, he obviously has to sit out for 7 days and get back into quarantine, so we are just monitoring at the moment. The physios are doing their best to analyse but he obviously has to have a scan at some point."

SRH were without the services of Natarajan on Wednesday but the side, nevertheless, put up a clinical bowling display to bowl Punjab out for a paltry 120. One of the stars of the game was young Abhishek Sharma, who, opening the bowling, returned figures of 2/24 off his 4 overs to serve as the perfect foil to Rashid Khan’s unplayable leg-spin. Warner revealed that the move to throw the ball up-front to Abhishek was done purely on instinct.

"I just had a gut instinct (because) they had just come from Wankhede and it's been a nice wicket there. I thought 'you know what, might as well throw him the ball and see how he goes'. Those two guys like pace on the new ball so I just thought I'll bring on Abhishek and we almost had a wicket in the first over,” the SRH skipper said of Abhishek’s introduction.

Chepauk has overseen slow and sluggish wickets all season, but on Wednesday, the curators dished out the slowest wicket of the season. Batsmen from both sides struggled to time the ball and the duo of Bairstow and Williamson, at one point, despite being 10 runs shy of victory, struggled to put bat to ball due to the sticky nature of the wicket. Warner described the surface as ‘shocking’, but insisted that he can sympathize with the curators, who have an arduous job of preparing wickets for a plethora of games.

"To be honest, it's shocking. It looks horrible on TV but you have to give credit to the curators. They have had a lot of cricket here so it's very very difficult for them to get this wicket up and about. Since I've started playing in Chennai it's always been there but it's very difficult for them.

"It's not their (curators) fault that the wicket is like this. You had the Indian Test series against England and the same thing in Australia we had a lot of games on the same pitches so the curators have got a very difficult job. As players we know what we have to do, there are no excuses. It's not ideal but at the end of the day we are grateful to go out there and play on these wickets because it's very challenging for them, they don't have any rest. We have to be professionals and adapt."

Wednesday's victory propelled SRH to fifth place in the points table.