Irfan Pathan, a former Indian cricket player, was pretty harsh on Prasidh Krishna after the team lost to England in the first Test on Tuesday. Prasidh gave up 128 runs in the first innings with an economy rate of 6.40, and in the second innings, he allowed runs at a rate of 6.10. Even though he picked up five wickets, Pathan wasn’t impressed. He pointed out that Jasprit Bumrah has a much better economy rate in T20s.
“Just look at his combined economy from both innings. He’s near the top for the worst economy rates for fast bowlers ever. Bumrah’s T20 economy is about 6.50. Prasidh really needs to focus on that. He has good height and pace, so he needs to learn how to bowl consistently where the batter is,” Pathan mentioned on Sony Sports.
Indian coach Gautam Gambhir made it clear that they won’t push Bumrah to play more than three Tests against England, even after the loss in the first match. Bumrah was the only bowler who troubled the England batsmen consistently at Headingley. Due to his injury history, the team decided to have him in three out of the five Tests, and that plan is staying.
“No, we won’t change our plans. Managing his workload is more important since there’s a lot of cricket coming up, and we know his value. Before he came on the show, it was already decided he’d play three Tests,” Gambhir said on Tuesday.
The next Test starts in Birmingham on July 2, but Gambhir said they haven’t decided which two matches Bumrah will play in the series.
“We’ll see how his body responds. We haven’t chosen the other two Tests he’ll take part in. Even without Bumrah, we still have a good bowling attack. We believe in them, he said. When we pick our squad, we go with trust, not hope. Sure, they’re inexperienced, but they’re improving. We saw during this Test that for most of the game, we were in a position to win. We trust these guys to get the job done,” Gambhir added.