Until the last five days of the long and arduous tour, Prasidh Krishna was the answer to the pub-side trivia A) Who is the first bowler in Test cricket to bleed more than run a ball in both innings? B) Who owns the highest match economy for an India Test bowler? The heartless meme-troll world celebrated the failure of Prasidh Krishna. A series that began on a catastrophic tone, an embarrassing statistical millstone, a frank admission of his listlessness, and the tedium on the bench, has ended on a redemptive note for Prasidh Krishna.
Prasidh Krishna could be fodder to cruel humour until someone emerges with more disfigured numbers, but the last five days of tour would have felt like liberation, an unburdening of all the accumulated angst and doubts. Bouquets would be showered on Mohammed Siraj, confetti popped on Shubman Gill and maybe a fizz of champagne splashed on Gautam Gambhir.
But Prasidh Krishna could reflect satisfactorily on the spirited support shift, a haul of eight-fer, he put on in Oval, the match-defining wickets as well as take the learnings from his longest streak of Tests. The toil could at least buy him a few more Tests.
Prasidh Krishna’s journey in England tour is a topsy turvy tale of success
Prasidh Krishna has rough edges. Like several tall bowlers, he is prone to bowling too short too often. It is a paradox, when the greatest gift is also the biggest enemy. Height, and the discomfiting bounce he could generate, can make batting an ordeal. But the failure to harness his ferocious strength, that is by erring on the shorter side, on flat and modestly fast England decks, and over-compensation in the form of half-volleys, can bleed a torrent of boundaries.
Prasidh Krishna leaked 69 fours and eight sixes, that is nearly one of eight balls. Like the first ball he bowled on the fifth day, a short-ball filth that Jamie Overton slugged to the fence. He is not the first tall bowler who has experienced this frustration. His own bowling struggled to direct the venom of his bounce at the start; as did his predecessor Ishant Sharma.
But throughout the carnage of runs plundered, Prasidh Krishna also illustrated the reason the team management has invested in him, those that once made Virat Kohli tweet about his “X factor”. Whenever he bowled a yard fuller, he not only purchased movement, but also extra lift and skid. Jamie Smith would confess.
He tried to crunch him on the rise, rose with the height of the ball, but still could not ride the bounce and ended up missing the ball altogether. And not to forget he might have killed the contest pretty early on day 4 itself when he had Harry Brook heaving to long-leg where Siraj fluffed it. A shorter, but not quite a rank-short one, ball hurried into Zak Crawley’s pull in the first innings at Oval. It was only a few centimetres, but the impact was markedly different, and vicious.
When Prasidh Krishna hits that length, batsmen become wary of driving him and so even when the ball is there to be driven they often fail to get fully forward, bringing the edge into play.
They are caught in a dilemma, as Jamie Smith was in the first innings, square-driving a ball that bounced more than he had judged, and Joe Root in the second innings when he tried to glide the ball past gully but with static feet and heavy hands, unusual of England’s talisman. A trifle fuller, he nips the ball devilishly into the right-hander. Then tall seamers tend to avoid the fuller length, because they risk floating the ball up when striving to bowl fuller.
Prasidh Krishna , who took 4/126 from 27 overs in India’s defense, was the pick of their bowlers in the first innings. Prasidh Krishna latter was once again entrusted with the task after he was expensive at Headingley and Edgbaston.Prasidh Krishna gave India a crucial breakthrough after England were cruising on 129/1. He dismissed Zak Crawley, Smith, Overton, and Gus Atkinson. Prasidh Krishna took 4/62 in 16 overs.
Prasidh Krishna finished with 8/188, now his best match figures in the format.The Indian seamer, who made his Test debut in 2023 against South Africa, now owns 22 wickets from six Tests at 34.36. His economy rate (4.72) is on the higher side. During the Oval Test, Prasidh Krishna also completed 100 wickets in First-Class cricket, where he averages 23.70.
Following his resurgenge in the Oval test, the lanky tall pacer received all the accolades from Former Indian batting coach Sanjay Bangar who considers him as the biggest positive in the English tour for India.
Prasidh Krishna has to be one of top bowlers- Sanjay Bangar
Former Indian all-rounder Sanjay Bangar has showered praise on Prasidh Krishna after the visitors clinched a thrilling six-run win against England in the fifth Test match at the Kennington Oval. Sanjay Bangar said Krishna has to be one of the top bowlers in overseas conditions. Prasidh Krishna was dropped in third and four Test matches after he could not deliver the goods in the first two games and he was also expensive. However, the lanky pacer from Karnataka bounced back strongly in the fifth and final Test of the series.
Prasidh Krishna took a total of 14 wickets in three Test matches at an average of 37.07. The fast bowler returned with figures of 4-62 in the first innings at the Oval. Subsequently, Prasidh Krishna then bagged 4-126 in the second innings. The fast bowler also got the big wicket of a well-settled Joe Root in the second dig to help India get back in the contest.
Sanjay Bangar said on ESPN Cricinfo :
“He has to be one of the top bowlers India would want to go ahead with overseas. He has actually repaid a lot of faith that has been put on him. Indian cricket has invested a lot in him, he hasn’t played too much of first-class cricket. So the way the previous management under Rahul Dravid showed faith in him and groomed him is critical.”
“Because after missing a couple of Test matches, he has gone back and really worked on the things he had to work on and the work was probably revolving around the various lengths he has to bowl and he bowled his normal length and he bowled the fuller length to dismiss Duckett and the yorker to dismiss Tongue as well. So overall, you could clearly sense he would have also gained tremendous confidence from the exploits at the Oval.”
Prasidh Krishna is 29, not young any more, an age when bowlers mature and peak, patience would soon wear thin. But if he is groomed smartly and his frame does not wilt, he could enjoy a late spring like Ishant enjoyed towards the tail-end of his career.
As much as the gifts of his physique, the strength of his mind too stands out. Few bowlers recover from the spate of injuries, from stress fractures to quadricep tears, he had suffered in the last few years, just when he seemed ready for Test cricket. Months of rehab cost his game that could have developed him into a rounded, worldly-wise operator. Fewer still would have recovered from bashings in the first Test, the crude humour on social media and still made a decisive impact in squaring the series.
In Oval, too, there were times he was hideously erratic, when the English bowlers feasted on him. But he showed the wherewithal to fight back, to not lose his head, to try still and wait for the kiss of life. So much so Prasidh Krishna would take the trivia jokes in a light-hearted vein.
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