Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra slammed Prasidh Krishna’s critics after the third ODI against South Africa, which India won by nine wickets. Krishna returned with impressive figures of 4-66 in 9.5 overs he bowled.
The lanky pacer conceded 27 runs in the first two overs he bowled but bounced back strongly in his second spell, taking three wickets. Krishna adopted a stump-to-stump line in his second spell and he was able to reap rewards as he plumbed Matthew Breetzke in front of the wickets, whereas clean-bowled centurion Quinton de Kock. He also got the big wicket of Aiden Markram, who had scored a match-winning knock in the second game.
Meanwhile, Krishna returned with expensive figures of 2-85 in 8.2 overs he bowled in the second ODI. The Karnataka pacer accounted for Temba Bavuma and Matthew Breetzke but conceded his runs at a high economy rate of 10.20. The fast bowler conceded 48 runs in 7.2 overs he bowled in the opening ODI at Ranchi and picked up one wicket.
“When the innings started, Prasidh Krishna had conceded a lot of runs in his first two overs. The Indian fast bowlers, Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana, had started very well, but runs were scored as soon as Prasidh Krishna came, and everyone abused him a lot,” Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
“They called him a fake bowler, asking everyone to see how many runs he concedes and how he was playing. Very quick to judge. I said at that stage that we should take out his ODI numbers and see why people are abusing him so much. I saw that his numbers don’t look that bad. Maybe a tad expensive, but a lot of runs are scored these days, and he is a wicket-taker as well,” he added.
The renowned commentator highlighted that Krishna hasn’t done too badly in T20Is.
“I said we should take out the T20I numbers. He might have got hit there and people might be angrier because of that. I didn’t see those numbers very bad either. So I wonder why people are after him so much. That’s what happens these days. An atmosphere is created on social media, and after that, we go after somebody,” he observed.
Krishna has scalped 37 wickets in 21 ODIs at an economy rate of 6.02.
