T. Natarajan Age, Stats, Records and IPL Price

Who is T. Natarajan?

T. Natarajan is an India international left-arm seamer whose career connects Tamil Nadu domestic cricket, the Tamil Nadu Premier League, three IPL franchises and all three senior international formats. His name is strongly associated with the yorker, but that description is more useful when placed in context: he can take the new ball, change pace through the middle and attack the blockhole when batters expect boundary opportunities at the death.

This profile keeps one canonical Natarajan identity across Tamil Nadu, Kings XI Punjab, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Delhi Capitals and India. A franchise transfer, international scorecard or domestic appearance must point to this same page instead of generating another biography. Identity checks use his Salem origin, left-arm bowling style, international debut sequence and official team records before any statistics are merged.

T. Natarajan age, birthplace and date-of-birth conflict

Delhi Capitals' current player profile gives 4 April 1991 as Natarajan's birth date, and the English Wikipedia infobox uses the same date. On that basis he was 35 on 11 August 2026. Both sources place his origins in Salem district, Tamil Nadu. His registered cricket identity is Thangarasu Natarajan, commonly shortened to T. Natarajan on scorecards and squad lists.

One official IPL 2025 auction list instead records 27 May 1991. The IPL biography also contains inconsistent date metadata while describing April in its narrative. This profile does not silently combine the dates or pretend the discrepancy is resolved. The current Delhi profile leads the displayed field, while the conflicting auction entry remains documented so a future corrected BCCI, TNCA or player record can settle it.

Salem, tennis-ball cricket and the route into Tamil Nadu cricket

Natarajan's public career story begins in the Salem region, where he developed through local tennis-ball cricket before moving into organised competition. The official IPL biography presents this as a long route rather than an academy fast track. Tennis-ball cricket is relevant to his reputation because repeated full-length bowling and control under limited margin helped shape the delivery that later became his T20 calling card.

He eventually entered Tamil Nadu's senior structure and made his first-class debut in the 2014-15 Ranji Trophy. Domestic cricket supplied a broader examination than a highlights reel: longer spells, red-ball control and repeated seasons against state opposition. Wikipedia's table dated 26 March 2025 lists 21 first-class matches and 67 wickets, including three five-wicket innings, but that snapshot is secondary and includes his Test appearance.

TNPL visibility and the yorker reputation

The Tamil Nadu Premier League was established by the TNCA to give the state's players a competitive T20 platform and bring district talent to a wider audience. Natarajan's performances for Dindigul Dragons in the inaugural period made his ability to land yorkers visible beyond local cricket. His league work did not by itself guarantee an IPL career, but it gave scouts repeated evidence of a specific, scarce skill.

A yorker is only valuable when execution survives match pressure. Missing short can create a full toss and missing long becomes a hittable half-volley, so the delivery's reputation cannot be separated from accuracy. Natarajan's later IPL and India spells showed why teams valued the method: left-arm angle changes a batter's sightline, while a full delivery at the stumps limits the room available for a conventional swing.

Kings XI Punjab and the first IPL opportunity

Kings XI Punjab bought Natarajan for ₹3 crore before IPL 2017 after competition at the auction. The official IPL profile records six matches and two wickets in that first season. Those figures were modest, and an auction price cannot be treated as proof that a player has already established himself. It was his first exposure to the league's scrutiny, travel and end-over demands.

The Punjab spell matters because it began his IPL record, yet it did not define the next stage. He was not an automatic long-term selection after 2017. Sunrisers Hyderabad subsequently added him to their squad and gave him a setting in which the death-bowling role developed over several seasons.

Sunrisers Hyderabad development and IPL 2020 breakthrough

Sunrisers Hyderabad signed Natarajan in 2018, but his major competitive breakthrough came in IPL 2020. Delhi's season table records 16 appearances, 377 legal deliveries and 16 wickets, with an economy rate of 8.02 and strike rate of 23.56. The wicket total alone understates the role because many of his overs came when batters were actively searching for boundaries.

His yorkers became a recurring feature of the tournament and moved him from franchise specialist to India consideration. It is still important not to convert reputation into invented delivery counts. This page uses official season totals and named match reports rather than repeating unsourced claims about how many yorkers he bowled. The documented outcome was selection for India's Australia tour after a full 2020 IPL campaign.

ODI and T20I debuts in Australia

BCCI added Natarajan to India's ODI squad in November 2020 as cover after Navdeep Saini reported a back spasm. He made his ODI debut against Australia at Canberra on 2 December and took two wickets. Two days later he made his T20I debut at the same venue, taking 3/30 as India defended 161 and won by eleven runs.

The debut was not a one-match curiosity. BCCI's report from the second T20I says Natarajan again starred with the ball as India won the series in Sydney. Wikipedia's dated table lists two ODIs with three wickets and four T20Is with seven wickets. The T20I average shown there is 17.42, with 3/30 as his best return. These figures remain separated from IPL and domestic T20 records.

Test cap 300 and three wickets at the Gabba

Natarajan had stayed in Australia as a net bowler after the limited-overs matches. When injuries reduced India's pace options, BCCI named him as Umesh Yadav's replacement for the remaining Tests. He made his Test debut at Brisbane on 15 January 2021 and received India cap number 300. On the opening day he dismissed Matthew Wade and Marnus Labuschagne after their century partnership.

He completed the innings by dismissing Josh Hazlewood and finished with 3/78 from 24.2 overs. India later won the Test by three wickets and the series 2-1. The milestone is therefore both individual and collective: he became an all-format international during one tour, but the historic Gabba result came from a depleted team contribution rather than one bowler alone.

Interrupted seasons and return to IPL wickets

Natarajan's 2021 IPL season contained only two matches and two wickets. Later in the season, IPL officially announced Umran Malik as a short-term COVID-19 replacement after Natarajan tested positive. That public record establishes the reason for that specific absence; it should not be expanded into claims about unrelated selections or long-term fitness without another dated medical source.

He returned to a larger workload in 2022 and took 18 wickets from eleven matches. The official table gives an average of 22.56 and strike rate of 14.33, showing that the wicket-taking role survived the disrupted year. In 2023 he played twelve matches and took ten wickets. These seasons sit between the international breakthrough and his strongest IPL wicket tally in 2024.

Nineteen wickets and 4/19 in IPL 2024

Natarajan led Sunrisers Hyderabad's wicket chart in IPL 2024 with 19 wickets from fourteen matches, according to the official team archive. His best performance came against Delhi Capitals at Arun Jaitley Stadium: he conceded only 19 runs in four overs, took four wickets and claimed three of them in his final over as Hyderabad completed a 67-run win.

The 4/19 return is his IPL career best. Across the season, Delhi's current statistical table lists 308 balls, 465 runs conceded, a bowling average of 24.47, economy of 9.06 and strike rate of 16.21. Hyderabad reached the final and finished runner-up. Team position and individual wicket leadership are related context, but the final appearance is not described as an individual title.

Delhi Capitals ₹10.75 crore auction price

Delhi Capitals acquired Natarajan for ₹10.75 crore at the IPL 2025 mega auction after he entered with a ₹2 crore base price. Both the official IPL auction table and Delhi's auction page record the winning amount. It was an acquisition price for the season's playing contract, not an audited statement of lifetime earnings or money received after tax, agent fees and private adjustments.

His first Delhi season produced one appearance, one over and no wicket in the official table. That small sample should not be converted into a judgement about form without a reliable availability record. Delhi retained him ahead of IPL 2026 at the same listed ₹10.75 crore figure, preserving him as a left-arm and death-over option rather than returning him to the auction.

T. Natarajan IPL 2026 and complete league record

Natarajan played ten matches for Delhi in IPL 2026 and took five wickets from 191 balls. His Delhi debut included 3/29 against Lucknow Super Giants, helping the Capitals begin the season with a win. The season table gives 356 runs conceded, an average of 71.20, economy of 11.18 and strike rate of 38.20. One strong match and a difficult full-season rate can both be true.

Through IPL 2026, Delhi's official profile lists 73 matches and 72 wickets. The detailed bowling table records 1,546 balls, 2,374 runs conceded, a 32.97 average, 9.21 economy, 21.47 strike rate and best figures of 4/19. The season wickets reconcile to the career total: two in 2017, sixteen in 2020, two in 2021, eighteen in 2022, ten in 2023, nineteen in 2024, none in 2025 and five in 2026.

How to read T. Natarajan's records

Natarajan's first-class row includes his one Test, so adding three Test wickets to 67 first-class wickets would count the same dismissals twice. International T20Is also belong inside broader Twenty20 career totals found on some databases, while IPL is one specific T20 competition. This profile keeps each labelled row intact and does not invent a single cross-format wicket total.

Source dates also matter. Wikipedia's structured table was last marked 26 March 2025, so it can supply a transparent secondary snapshot for Test, ODI, T20I and first-class figures but cannot describe IPL 2026. Delhi's current official table leads the completed IPL record. BCCI match reports lead debut and Gabba claims. When a future official international table becomes newer and usable, it should override the matching Wikipedia rows without deleting valid league data.

The bowling averages require context. An IPL death bowler regularly works in overs where batters accept dismissal risk for boundaries, while first-class spells offer different fields, balls and innings lengths. Comparing a 9.21 IPL economy directly with a red-ball average does not measure one universal ability. The useful comparison is within the same competition, season and role, backed by matches, balls, wickets and checked dates.

T. Natarajan net worth, family and review

No audited source retrieved for this review publishes Natarajan's net worth, assets or complete annual income. The reliable public figures are the ₹3 crore Kings XI Punjab auction price before 2017 and Delhi's ₹10.75 crore acquisition before 2025, followed by retention for 2026. Adding auction prices across seasons would not produce net worth and would ignore taxes, fees, private terms and years without a new auction.

The reviewed official cricket sources do not publish enough relevant information to verify a wife, girlfriend or wider family biography, so this page does not repeat private or entertainment-site claims. Identity was checked across Delhi, IPL, BCCI, ICC, TNCA-linked material and Wikipedia. No portrait is used because exact identity, provenance and reuse permission were not all established. The birth-date conflict remains visible instead of being resolved by guesswork.