Former Indian fast bowler Ashish Nehra has put his weight behind Prasidh Krishna despite a poor performance from the lanky paceman in the third T20I against Australia at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati on Tuesday.
Krishna conceded 68 runs in his quota of four overs, which is the most for any Indian bowler in the T20I format. The lanky pacer had 21 runs in the bank for the final over but could not defend against Matthew Wade and Glenn Maxwell as he could not handle the pressure.
In fact, Krishna conceded six runs in the 18th over he bowled as he nailed his loopy slower balls. But Krishna was put under pressure from the get-go in the final over as he was smashed for a four on the first ball by Matthew Wade and he also had to bowl with only four fielders outside the 30-yard circle due to slow over-rate.
“There is no shortage of talent when you talk about somebody like Prasidh Krishna. He is definitely one of the future stars of Indian cricket. Here, you are talking about T20 format, it’s only three games and he had not played a lot of cricket in the lead-up to the T20I tournament. I hope he will only get better from here,” Ashish Nehra told Sports 18.
Krishna could not hold his nerves as he didn’t even attempt a yorker and was smashed by Glenn Maxwell after 16 runs were needed off the final four balls.
“Sometimes, every team plans and strategise things. But you can’t do everything in advance. I think both teams decided today that they won’t be bowling yorkers,” Nehra said.
Nehra said Krishna should have tried to bowl the yorkers in the final over as he should have been brave.
“Yes, it’s difficult to bowl yorkers. But, with one odd or two odd balls, you can bowl yorkers. You are talking about guys like Arshdeep and Prasidh. I am not talking about Marcus Stoinis, someone like him. However, Prasidh Krishna can bowl those good yorkers. Yes, it was a wet outfield. If you can nail one yorker in those situations, it can be a dot ball or you can get a wicket. Anyways you are going for runs, but who knows you might nail. One wicket can change the game,” he added.
Prasidh has scalped four wickets in three matches in the T20I series, but the pacer has conceded 159 runs at a high economy rate of 13.25.
The fourth T20I between India and Australia will be played at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium, Raipur on Friday.
