Back in 2015, Prasidh Krishna’s maiden first-class game was an eventful one. He didn’t just take a five-for while playing for Karnataka against Bangladesh A but also plucked a wicket with his first ball itself. Six years later, on his ODI debut, the lanky pacer bagged a four-for. However, his first three overs were also expensive, 37 runs came off it.
The above-mentioned lines have become a pattern in Prasidh’s career. Be it in Centurion, Sydney, The Oval, Edgbaston or Cape Town, either Prasidh has given away a flurry of boundaries, or alongside being taken to the cleaners, he has also bagged crucial wickets. The Raipur ODI turned out to be another example of Prasidh’s bowling being a version of Jekyll and Hyde, toe-crushers and the heavy ball juxtaposed by hit-me leg-side deliveries and full tosses.
On the surface, Prasidh has the required artillery in his quiver to succeed at the highest level. He does get extra bounce and bowls at a fair clip. But those weapons seem to have a few missing screws. One of them is this: when Prasidh bowls a full length, the leather ball invariably seems to crash into the boundary boards. To summarise the point, his attempts at especially generating conventional swing don’t really yield results. In that backdrop, it is perhaps better to develop a wobble ball in his own training workshop.
Meanwhile, in limited overs, his tendency to look for wickets right through his spells has been one of his bugbears. The yorker–short ball–hard length combo doesn’t always come to your rescue. Here, just consider Harshit Rana’s ability to bowl into-the-pitch slower ones on a wider line. Somewhere, it gives him a buffer to his main weapons in the abridged versions. Prasidh does have a loopy slower one, but when he tried off-pace deliveries on his back-of-a-length offerings against South Africa, it sat up nicely for the batter to play across the line.
Curiously, the same pace bowler showcased fast-bowling mindset in the 2025 IPL where he finished as the Purple Cap holder. Right through that tournament, Prasidh was judiciously mixing up his lengths, according to the strengths and weaknesses of any particular batter. Maybe, on occasions, Prasidh’s problems are also to do with the mental side of things. It is high time that Prasidh pulls up his socks. Otherwise, at some point, the management is bound to look past him.
Despite Prasidh going for 10 an over in Raipur, a little bit of leeway has to be given to him and the rest of the bowlers. The dew factor once again played a key role under lights. The on-field umpires changed the ball no fewer than four times. It just skidded on to the bat, making it easier for the South African batters to crack a range of shots. When it feels like a bar of soap, it is difficult for any bowler to execute the offerings as visualised.
Even if you adhere to science, it observes that from November to February, you generally notice heavy dew in Raipur. In fact, even in the first game in Ranchi, there was enough dew on display. And in Vizag, too, dew could make an impression. To make matters worse for India, they just can’t win a toss.
In such circumstances, what are the options for a home board? One of them could be to prepone the start time by a bit. It needn’t be a day game, but even a 12 o’clock start would give the team losing the toss a chance to defend the target. Chemicals such as APSA-80 can also be employed to reduce the impact of the dew.
So, in a day or two, all eyes won’t just be zoomed in on Virat Kohli and Rohit. But also on the much-talked-about dew point and one certain Prasidh, provided the pace bowler secures a place in the XI.
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