1st Test: India made the right choice with Prasidh, says Manjrekar

Leeds, June 22 Though Prasidh Krishna is close to conceding 100 runs in the ongoing first Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy Test, former batter Sanjay Manjrekar believes India’s choice of making him play at Headingley was correct and suggested that the pacer will get better with time.

Playing just his third Test match, despite picking two wickets, Prasidh struggled to find the right lines and lengths, as he and other bowlers failed to provide ample support to fast-bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah in curbing England’s scoring rate.

“If you see Prasidh Krishna in this Test match as opposed to the Test he played for India earlier in South Africa, he’s looked the best to me. Yesterday, although he didn’t quite get the wickets, he was still India’s number two seamer. He was better than Mohammed Siraj, certainly more potent than Shardul Thakur.”

“So, India made the right choice and went for him; this is Prasidh Krishna doing the best he can. With time, if he gets a couple of wickets and builds confidence, he might just get better and better. I will not be critical of Prasidh Krishna with the way he’s bowled — he has done everything he possibly could to the best of his ability,” said Manjrekar on JioHotstar.

Deep Dasgupta, the former India wicketkeeper-batter also reflected on Prasidh’s expensive performance, saying that the pacer has bowled too many boundary balls to England’s explosive batters. “My only concern with Prasidh is the consistency on a flattish pitch that we have here, at Headingley. You have got to come in and bowl the right channel, over after over — and that’s where I think Prasidh has given up a few more boundary deliveries than you would want him to.”

“That’s been the challenge - he’s bowled good deliveries, but not consistently enough. We’ve always talked about Prasidh’s natural length, and especially against batters, who love playing their shots and have an array of options available to them, it becomes a little difficult. So, every now and then, you’d see him leaking runs. That’s the reason you see that kind of economy rate.”

In the first session, local lad Harry Brook made merry by being 57 not out and Nick Knight, the former England batter, admired how he stood up to take on Bumrah. “I think we are seeing an adaptation of the very best of Harry Brook. When we’ve watched him and admired his skills over the years, we’ve often noticed the high strike-rate at which he scores in Test cricket, the audacious shots, and his aggressive approach.”

“But, this felt like a more refined version of Harry Brook, and I like what I see. I think he’s playing the match situation really well. I also liked how, in the first over or two, he danced down the pitch to Jasprit Bumrah and said, ‘Look, you may be the number one bowler in the world, but I’m pretty good too — I’m the number two batter in the world.’ That signalled a good contest, that he wasn’t just going to sit back.”

“There was much to admire in that knock, but what stood out most to me was how well he read the game situation and tried to build partnerships. He’s smart and astute. We talk a lot about ‘Bazball’ — but there wasn’t a huge amount of that in this session. And that’s the point I want to make: the approach is constantly refining itself, and I think English batters played the situation well,” he concluded.

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