IND vs ENG | Want to cement my name as a ‘partnership breaker’, asserts Prasidh Krishna

After India’s previous hit-the-deck-hard-with-raw-pace seamer Navdeep Saini’s career went south, debutant Prasidh Krishna’s threatened to go the same route as in his first three overs, the Karnataka speedster conceded an unremarkable 37 runs, finding no rhythm or consistency whatsoever. However, against all odds, with England cruising, the 25-year-old then produced a super comeback and opened the floodgates by sending Jason Roy back to the hut. He then punched a hole in England’s heart to inflict a middle-order collapse and eventually ended with figures of 4/54, the best ever by an Indian bowler on ODI debut, and his stellar showing enabled India to take a 1-0 lead in the series.

Speaking to the host broadcaster post the game, Prasidh said that he would love to become a permanent ‘partnership breaker’ in the Indian setup.

“I hope I can be the partnership breaker for long, because the team needed it at the time, so I was happy to do it,” Prasidh said post India’s 66-run victory.

Prasidh started off well, troubling Jonny Bairstow in his very first over, but a forgettable third over saw the right-armer concede 22 runs, as he was taken to the cleaners by the rampant Yorkshireman. The 25-year-old was then taken off the attack, but he was near-flawless after being re-introduced, as he ended up taking 4/17 off his last 5.1 overs. Prasidh said that he re-thought, re-evaluated and tweaked his plans after being pummeled in his first spell.

“It didn't start off well, and they came hard at us because we bowled poorly, but we had belief. We picked wickets in a cluster and that helped us a lot. I understood after my third over, I can't bowl full, and then I hit good length areas, and let the ball do the rest,” the 25-year-old said.

The big stage is no alien territory for Prasidh, who has been playing in the IPL since 2018, and the KKR man admitted that the IPL has helped him grow as a bowler. The hit-the-deck bowler, however, revealed that he hopes to go back to the drawing board and work on his consistency, something he felt was lacking at times today.

“IPL has helped me, but it's important in a 10-over format it's more important to come back. I'd like to be known as a hit-the-deck bowler, and I'm trying to get the length more consistently, and I'm going to go back to the drawing board and improve upon it.”