Prasidh picked up 2 for 60 in a high-scoring encounter against West Indies, grabbing the important wickets of Keacy Carty and Roston Chase. He is only 29 ODIs into his career, but had to assume the role of the lead fast bowler in the first ODI with Gurnoor Brar and Nitish Kumar Reddy even less experienced. In such situations, Prasidh says knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses helps.
“Gurnoor and I have spent two years now [playing together] at Gujarat Titans [in the IPL]. So I kind of know we have that rapport,” Prasidh said. “Most importantly, it’s the ability that you have within the team to talk to each other, and that happens.
“We have been working on communicating even during games. And knowing each other personally helps, because you know what somebody’s working on, what somebody’s good at, what his strengths and not-so-strengths are. So that just helps each other when you’re under pressure and you can just go chat to each other and help them out.”
With the ODI World Cup barely a year away, the selectors could have a hard time settling on a final set of fast bowlers for the showpiece event, with India having a problem of plenty. Jasprit Bumrah is a lock-in if fit, while the likes of Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh and Brar are all in the mix alongside allrounders Reddy, Hardik Pandya and Harshit Rana. How does Prasidh view this competition among the fast bowlers?
“It’s great,” he said. “Yeah, we are seeing a lot of fast bowlers coming in. And it’s really good for the Indian cricket team, honestly. You keep pushing each other. And every time we go into nets, we know the kind of bowlers that we’re bowling amongst. And, yeah, that really helps. You’re always communicating with each other, trying to push each other to do better. And I would say Indian cricket, in terms of fast bowling, is in pretty good hands.”
‘Unbelievable’ – Prasidh on Kohli’s innings
“It was unbelievable,” Prasidh said of Kohli’s innings. “Sitting outside we were thinking, what do we bowl to him at that moment? He was striking the ball really, really well. All of us have grown up watching Virat Kohli and to see him do what he did today was unbelievable. I think all of us were excited about it.”
