Wasted Potential To Frontline Pace Sensation — The Reinvention Of Prasidh Krishna

Tall. Lanky. Hit the deck action. Genuine movement, and full of pace — Muralikrishna Prasidh Krishna had everything as a pacer that an Indian cricket fan and expert would salivate over. 

India is not known to produce pacers who fulfil all the above-mentioned things that Prasidh already had with him as a pacer. Skiddy and skilful pacers who are not extravagantly tall have ruled the roost in Indian fast bowling ever since Amar Singh and Mohammad Nissar bowled pace in India’s first ever Test match. 

So, when Prasidh arrived on the fringes of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Indian international side a few years ago, there was a lot of serendipity around him. While he was raw and had a knack of bowling at least one or two bad deliveries in an over after delivering some top-notch stuff at the same time, there was enough potential shown to back him. 

The BCCI even kept a close eye on him despite his plethora of injuries (including a stress fracture and quadriceps surgery), but he was lost to rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy (NCA). The situation was so fragile between 2022 and 2024 that Prasidh probably spent more time at the NCA than on the ground. 

He hardly played any IPL this time either, and despite performing well at the domestic level, his return to the Indian Test team was delayed. He could only finally feature in the squad in Australia during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

To say that questions were being raised on his credibility would be an understatement. His name was mentioned with a frown, a deep sigh and the same refrain — waste of opportunity and potential! 

However, in this 2025 season of the IPL, Prasidh has shown a 2.0 version that’s stronger, smarter, and more lethal as a pacer. To say that what he has done so far in the season is a sight for sore eyes would be a cliche and an understatement. 

So far, Prasidh is not only the second-highest wicket-taker in the tournament but has also spearheaded the Gujarat Titans’ bowling attack—a role that everyone wished he could have fulfilled a few years back. 

Moreover, he has arguably been the best bowler outside of the powerplay, which is the exact role given to him by GT since Mohammed Siraj covers their new ball bowling. Prasidh's ability to generate steep and unprofitable bounce has been a masterclass in hit-the-deck bowling. This was always supposed to be his strong point as a pacer, but for him to come and do it consistently has been the real standout thing this season. 

That’s where his experience and smarts assist him immensely in being a strike bowler on various surfaces, despite not having the new ball movement to help him. Ahmedabad employs two kinds of tracks — one made up of red soil, which assists pace and bounce; and the other consisting of black soil, which is a sluggish surface with grip. To his credit, the Karnataka pacer found methods to be successful on both of these. 

Against Mumbai Indians at the beginning of the season, GT used a black soil surface. Prasidh bowled his four overs for just 18 runs and picked the wickets of Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav, MI’s middle order mainstays, with two brilliant off-pace deliveries outside off, allowing the batters neither pace nor reach on the ball. 

Half of his deliveries were slower balls that day, and he gave just nine runs on them. Moreover, because of the sluggish pitch, his high-effort hit the deck deliveries became hard to hit, and the bounce remained unpredictable. 

Meanwhile, against Rajasthan Royals, where a red solid surface was used, he bowled just one slower delivery out of 24. He picked up stellar figures of 3/24, where he dismissed both Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer with the extra bounce he could generate on the surface. 

When pulled together, the tale of these two contrasting surfaces gives a single conclusion in bold and capital letters—this new version of Prasidh Krishna is exactly what India hoped he would be when they continued to back him despite his journey being full of injury potholes.

Prasidh 2.0 is so good that in overs 7-20 this IPL, Jasprit Bumrah is the only pacer to have a better economy than him (6 runs/over). He also has the best bowling average in this phase for any bowler, picking a wicket almost every 10 deliveries he bowls. He has been so hard to hit that he is generating as many as 40% false shots from the batters, and he also has the best dot ball percentage (44.1) outside of the powerplay for any bowler in the competition. 

Prasidh is not only ensuring that he picks wickets but is also giving runs at a very slow trickle by the league’s current standards. His speeds have reached 147.8 kmph this season, and whenever he has gone for the pace up deliveries, he has bowled close to 140 kmph or more. GT’s consistent presence in the top three spots on the points table has much to do with Prasidh bowling like this. 

India have always wanted Prasidh to do this with the ball. He failed to do that in the two Tests he played against South Africa in 2024. But there’s an England tour right after the IPL, where India will play five Test matches. 

After Bumrah, India need a pacer like Prasidh who can keep coming back and challenge the batters with both vertical and lateral movement in the helpful conditions of England. His length control has been stellar this IPL, and if he’s able to emulate that in England, the natural skiddy inward movement he gets on the ball at high pace would be lethal for the English batters. 

It is time for Prasidh Krishna to rise from the shadows of being a perennially injured and underperforming bowler to being India’s frontline pace sensation.