Following India’s loss in the Centurion Test, skipper Rohit Sharma has thrown his weight behind debutant pacer Prasidh Krishna, who had a poor outing in the 1st Test against South Africa.
In the post-match press conference, skipper Rohit Sharma pointed at Krishna’s lack of experience – this was just his 13th first-class game and only his second FC game in the last 21 months as he’d been dealing with multiple injuries.
Rohit said: “Look, a little bit inexperience, of course, but he has got the tools to come out here and play the game. The bowlers that we have back in India, some of them are injured, some of them are not available. So we try to pick the guys who are available and we see the conditions that we are coming up against and try to pick the bowlers based on that.
On the previous tour in 2021/22, the lack of extra bounce that the Indian pacers generated compared to the South African pacers was a talking point. Krishna, with his height and hit-the-deck skillset, was India’s answer. However, the solution didn’t work out as India had hoped for.
Prasidh Krishna would have been nervous as well: Rohit Sharma
Prasidh Krishna, and Shardul Thakur, couldn’t keep the momentum and pressure created by Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. While Bumrah and Siraj took 6/160 in 50.4 overs, Thakur and Krishna conceded 194 runs in 39 overs, allowing Dean Elgar, David Bedingham, and Marco Jansen to score freely.
Sharma added that Prasidh Krishna has got the skillset that they were looking for in him for South African pitches, and that perhaps he got nervous on his Test debut.
“Obviously, it didn’t work out well for him playing his first game, but we all were nervous when we played our first game. He would have been nervous as well.
“These things happen, but the guy definitely has the game to excel in this particular format. So we are going to back him because he definitely has the potential and he has got a great attitude as well about his game, which probably will hold us in good stead moving forward.”
That’s that from the Test at Centurion.
South Africa win by an innings and 32 runs, lead the series 1-0.
Scorecard – https://t.co/032B8Fmvt4 #SAvIND pic.twitter.com/Sd7hJSxqGK
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 28, 2023
Also Read: SA vs IND: Fans Are Slamming BCCI For Not Picking Cheteshwar Pujara And Ajinkya Rahane
