Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan slammed Prasidh Krishna’s bowling after India suffered a five-wicket loss against England in the opening Test match at Leeds, Headingley on Tuesday. The lanky pacer from Karnataka failed to deliver the goods as he was expensive in both innings.
Krishna returned with figures of 3-128 in the first innings in 20 overs he bowled, conceding his runs at an economy rate of 6.40. In the second innings, Krishna took two wickets but once again gave away 92 runs in 15 overs he bowled, conceding his runs at 6.10.
Pathan said this is mostly Bumrah’s economy rate in T20 cricket. Krishna, who is a hit-the-deck bowler, didn’t bowl fuller, which is key to success in English conditions. Furthermore, Krishna didn’t back his strengths and didn’t bowl accurate bouncers.
“He changed his length. He was hit for a four off the first ball, a short ball, an absolute loosener. He woke up after that and changed his length. He bowled a length where you couldn’t play the drive, and he also got to swing with that. The swing and late movement made him effective,” Pathan said on Sony Sports.
“Just look at his economy combining both the innings. He is at No. 2 in terms of the worst economy for a fast bowler in history. Bumrah has this economy in T20s, nearly 6.50. So he will have to concentrate on his economy. He has good height and pace. He will have to learn as soon as possible how to bowl a consistent area according to the batter,” he added.
On the other hand, former Indian wicket-keeper bat Saba Karim concurred with Pathan and said Krishna is leaking a lot of runs.
“He is leaking a lot of runs. It won’t work out like that. The performance was much better in the second innings. He bowled well in different, different spells. As Irfan said, he changed his length and benefited because of that. However, he is still giving too much width or bowling too short at times,” he said.
Karim urged Krishna to work harder on his bowling and bounce back stronger for the team.
“So he needs to work hard on that. I was speaking to Bharat Arun as well, and Arun has worked with him, and that’s an area of concern for Prasidh Krishna, and he will have to learn very quickly,” Saba observed.
The second Test match between India and England will be played at Edgbaston, Birmingham from July 2nd onwards.
