Mumbai: He is fast and is described as India’s fast bowling future by a legend. All of 20, a fast bowling son of a wire factory worker in Jaipur is making the right kind of noises in the domestic cricketing circle.
Nathu Singh, a fast bowler from Rajasthan, was picked by chief selector Sandeep Patil in the Board President’s squad for the two-day warm-up match against South Africa before the four-Test series starting November 5.
Patil believed the boy had ‘the X-Factor’ that selectors always search for. And that spark in Nathu was also noticed by none other than Rahul Dravid. Nathu has picked up 12 wickets for Rajasthan in his four first-class matches.
After his first match, he got the attention of Gautam Gambhir who mentioned to their coach Vijay Dahiya that “after a long time he has seen a new India material, please make sure he is not ruined by over-bowling.”
Nathu was sent in to Surana Academy in Jaipur and he made a giant leap. From the academy, he was picked for Rajasthan’s U-19 team in 2013. He made his first-class debut in the ongoing Ranji Trophy and stared it with 7 for 87 against Delhi.
Within three years, he was bowling to the likes of Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
“My life has changed a lot. I used to watch a lot of cricket on the television as a kid. And every time I watched a fast bowler run in, I would say to myself, ‘I want to bowl like this one day’,” Nathu told bcci.tv.
Nathu Singh's story:https://t.co/te3Mz1MYCP @BCCI #IPLAuction
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“I loved watching Shoaib Akhtar bowl. He was so quick. I watched him and decided that I want to bowl so fast that I break his record. And for that I have to work really hard, for which I am absolutely prepared,” he added.
When asked to describe about his bowling, Nathu said: “Everything about my bowling is natural. “I still bowl the same way I used to when I started playing cricket. The only thing I have learned is to adjust my length according to the pitch and the match situation.
“I have a natural in-swinger and I get away swing with the same action and angle. I am not working on any aspect regarding swinging the ball. I am only focusing on getting my lengths right. I have a few variations as well, like the back-of-hand slower one and bouncer, and the cutters. I have learnt all these on my own, bowling with the tennis ball,” he added.
What makes Nathu different from the rest is that he knows his strengths and weaknesses - something you don’t expect from an young man who has just stepped out of his teenage years.
“The one weakness I have is that I tend to go haywire with my line. I just want to improve on that,” he said. “When I bowled with the tennis ball, my run-up consisted of two to three steps. Once I started with the leather ball, I had to increase the length of my run-up to generate that force. It took me a lot of time to adjust to a long run-up.
“It was also a challenge to get control over my swing with the leather ball. Initially, it tended to swing too far across. The coaches would ask me to bowl with a crossed seam. Gradually as I practised more and more, I got the hang of it.” Nathu is happy to get all the media glare but his modesty makes him sad too. “It makes me feel really happy (that everyone is backing me to make it big) but at the same time it also scares me,” Nathu said.
