‘A bowler who doesn’t know his strengths, not extremely skilled in any area’: Former India batter slams pacer Prasidh Krishna for poor ODI show
Former India batter Mohammed Kaif made a scathing assessment of pacer Prasidh Krishna’s skills after the Karnataka bowler came under fire during the team’s second ODI defeat in Raipur earlier this week.
On a dewy evening, South Africa gunned down a 359-run target, making it the joint-highest chase against India in ODIs and Prasidh ended up being the most expensive bowler for the Men in Blue. Despite picking up two wickets, Prasidh conceded 85 runs, giving away in excess of 10 runs per over. Kaif lambasted the bowler’s skills, insisting that the 29-year-old one area of strength as a lead pacer.
“Prasidh was expensive even in the Tests in England. He leaks runs. He is a bowler who does not know his strengths. He is not extremely skilled in any one area. His strength is to hit the deck, but he does not bowl slower ones. This is the only thing he knows. He did work a bit on the variations in the IPL. But international cricket is different. The ball was very wet, so maybe we can give him the benefit of the doubt. It is difficult to bowl with a wet bowl for inexperienced bowlers. Here is where you need experienced bowlers,” Kaif said on his YouTube channel.
Kaif reiterated his earlier remark of the Indian attack lacking teeth in the absence of senior pacers.
“There is less experience in bowling. When this team was picked, I told this. No Bumrah, no Shami, no Siraj. If you want to transition, you have to keep some seniors with the juniors. There are no seniors at all. Prasidh, Arshdeep, Rana – how many games have all of these played? You need senior pacers to tell them things. You have picked a team with a lot of inexperienced pacers,” he said.
Kaif’s former India teammate Harbhajan Singh also recently questioned the selectors’ and the team management for snubbing Mohammed Shami from the set-up.
Where is Shami? I don’t know why Shami is not playing,” said Harbhajan on his Youtube channel after the 2nd ODI. “I get it, you have Prasidh, he is a good bowler, but he still has a lot to learn. You had good bowlers, and you have slowly sidelined them. With Bumrah, this is a different bowling attack, and without Bumrah, it is entirely different attack altogether. We have to learn the art of winning games without Jasprit Bumrah,” said Harbhajan.
