Former Team India head coach Ravi Shastri was effusive in praise for young Indian pace sensation Prasidh Krishna following the speedster’s superb bowling effort against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday evening bowling for Rajasthan Royals, in IPL 2022.
If SRH had any hopes of chasing down the daunting target of 211, it vanished inside five overs as Krishna dismissed SRH skipper Kane Williamson, Rahul Tripathi and Trent Boult accounted for Nicholas Pooran’s dismissal.
While Trent Boult was almost expected to trouble batters early on with the new ball, it was Prasidh Krishna who stood out with his excellent lines and lengths.
Ravi Shastri, who has now returned to the commentary box for Star Sports, gushed on about Krishna who made his ODI debut last year when Shastri was still India’s head coach.
“He was relentless. If you’re bowling at lengths, the hard lengths, when you beat the bat and get the edges, you expect some odd ball (that may go loose). But he was mean, he gave nothing,” Shastri said on Star Sports’ post-match show.
“He made sure the batsmen have their driving licenses in their pockets. He said ‘I don’t want to see your driving licenses, I don’t want to give you anything on the bat. I’m going to ping you on the backfoot and get you out’.”
Ravi Shastri was particularly impressed with how Krishna got rid of Kane Williamson. The seamer came closer to the stumps, hitting the back of length area, a hint of swing in the batter forcing Williamson to play with a slightly open face and the Kiwi nicked it; the extra bounce that Krishna gets because of his height is threatening, Shastri reckons.
“Look at the way he got Williamson out. (Usually, bowlers would go) Top of off-stump, get the nick. He knew there was bounce there, and he said ‘I’ll take that nick to a foot-and-a-half, top of off-stump’. He’s got the height, he’s got the wrist and he’s got the seam coming out high. Good to see an Indian banging it in against a world-class player,” Ravi Shastri explained.
Prasidh Krishna finished with excellent bowling figures of 2/16 from his 4 overs, one of which was a wicket maiden.
