New Delhi [India], September 2 : For Prasidh Krishna, the tours of Australia and England were more than just another chapter in his cricketing journey. In the England Test series, Jasprit Bumrah was set to feature in only three of the five Tests due to workload management, a rare chance opened up for Prasidh to step up. He had earlier been part of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where he only got a chance to bowl in the fifth Test, but he was yet to prove himself as a Test bowler, as per ESPNcricinfo.
In Australia, Krishna played only one match, where he picked up six wickets, and in England, he scalped 14 in three Test matches.
"For me, Australia was really, really challenging mentally," Prasidh said, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
"I went there to play the 'A' games, bowled well, was in great rhythm, and still had to wait for my chance. When I finally played (in the SCG Test), it took a lot out of me mentally. Fighting for my spot and then finally getting to start was a battle in itself," he added.
"If you're not playing, you prepare a certain way on the outside - that's a different challenge. Coming into England, I was in a much better place because I knew I had already handled a five-match series, both without playing and then playing," he said.
"Taking that experience forward was a different challenge again, and that brought in the physical aspect. It was very, very hard - you bowl a lot of overs, and we were playing with mostly pacers doing the bulk of the job, especially in the first and second innings. It was gruelling," Krishna noted.
He added,"Once the series was over, it felt like, 'Oh my god, that was one good series'."
In the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, the start, however, was far from ideal. At Headingley, Prasidh entered the record books for the wrong reason, becoming the first bowler in Test history to concede more than a run a ball in both innings (minimum 15 overs in each). He also ended up with the highest match economy for an Indian Test bowler, but there was a story behind those numbers. Despite India piling up five individual centuries, they still lost that match. The plan was to adopt the short-ball strategy, believing Prasidh's height and high release point would make it difficult for England's lower-middle order to handle pull shots. Prasidh admits he wasn't completely convinced but says he did what the team asked of him.
"It is very important for both of us (Shubman Gill and him) to understand each other - for me to know what the team actually wants, why I am here, and what they want from me," Prasidh said.
"It's equally important for the team to understand what is the best that Prasidh can give in a given situation," he added.
"We started off knowing there would be instances where I would have to do the job the team wanted - and I took it. It was actually a first-time experience for me, where the team wanted me to do something that I wasn't fully convinced about," he noted.
"But then you have 20 people sitting outside who have a plan. We've spoken about it, and agreed on it. So it becomes your duty to come in and do the job for the team. I was more than happy to do it, because that's why you play a team sport. If you only wanted to do what you wanted, you'd be playing something else, just by yourself," Krishna said.
"It was a very good learning experience for me as well, especially in terms of communication. It got better after or during the second Test, when I actually went up and said, 'Okay, this is the plan, but maybe we could have done something differently'. The conversations were very open, the communication was very good, even though it was a first-time experience for me," he noted.
"I think we took some time but learned about each other really well," he added.
"It's never a good sight when you look at the scoreboard and see your economy rate on the higher side. It took me some time to be okay with that and to stay focused on the task at hand in that moment," he recalled.
Yet, the tour gave him a lot more than just numbers to reflect on.
When asked about his favourite spells from the summer, he said, "I think the first Test itself - that spell when I got (Zak) Crawley and (Ollie) Pope in the second innings - was very important for me."
"I wasn't hitting my lengths right early on, and I was finding the wind and the slope a lot harder to handle than I ever had before," he noted.
"That spell actually made me feel good. Otherwise, the spell I bowled to (Ben) Stokes in the second innings (in Birmingham) - I didn't get a wicket there, but that morning when I came in gave me a bit of confidence as well," Krishna added.
England tested him, challenged him, and allowed him to celebrate.
Now back home, Prasidh is gearing up for the Test season. After a memorable Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, where he won the Purple Cap, he wants to carry the same energy and is ready for fresh challenges.
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