IND vs SA: Why taller Prasidh Krishna should be preferred over skiddier Mukesh Kumar in South Africa | Cricket News
Prasidh Krishna, at 6″5′, is the tallest among their rather short fast bowling crew. It’s a gift on bouncy decks – both the lightning fast bounce of Australia as well as the tennis ball-like spongy variant of South Africa. Height was arguably the biggest difference between India and South in the two previous tours, both South Africa had claimed 2-1 margin. Both times, the pace-bowling phalanxes of both teams were evenly matched, in terms of skills and numbers, yet South Africa’s men fast-men conveyed the impression that they made the ball misbehave often than the Indians. After India’s 135-run defeat in Centurion in the 2018 tour, commentator Mike Haysman marked out the difference of height, and thus the higher release points, as the biggest disparity between the two highly skilled firms. India’s quartet were not exactly vertically challenged. Ishant Sharma was 6′ 4, Hardik Pandya 6′ 2; Jasptrit Bumrah just under 6 feet.
Just that South African pacers – Morne Morkel, Lungi Ngidi, Kagiso Rabada and Vernon Philander- were taller. Even among similarly taller players—like Ishant and Morkel—the difference in the height of release points was noticeable. The average difference was almost 20 cm, and hence, the bounce variation after pitch was around 15cm. “This difference is significant when you are a batsman. You would always be hesitant to go forward and end up playing everything on the back-foot, even the good-length ones,” Haysman would observe.
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In the last tour, India’s group was even shorter. All four of Shami, Bumrah, Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj under six. South Africa’s bunch, with the addition of 6′ 8 Marco Jansen, grew taller. So much so that the South African with the lowest release height, Wiaan Mulder bowled from a considerably higher plane (2.1m) than the Indian bowler with the highest release point, Jasprit Bunrah (1.9m).
The detail did not escape the eyes of coach Rahul Dravid either. After the defeat in Johannesburg during the last tour, he would say: “It just felt like the ball seemed to misbehave a little bit more for them, and that could be [because of the] fact of the height. On up-and-down wickets sometimes just having that extra height might tend to make a little bit of a difference.”
It’s the reason perhaps they packed the squad with Prasidh, yet to make his Test debut, away from the game a long-time due an injury, and is still in the formative years of his first-class career. He has featured in only 12 first-class games, though in those 12, he has already grabbed 54 scalps at an average of 17.29. The last five came in the unofficial Test between India A and South Africa last week in Potchefstroom, which undoubtedly brightens his chance of making his Test debut in Centurion, a ground where variable bounce invariably kicks up as the game progresses.
It’s not just about Prasidh’s height, but how he uses the gift to his advantage that makes him difficult to negotiate. The extra height gives him extra bounce off the pitch, more margin for error with his length, and the best chance of extracting life from the surface. Batters are wary of driving him and so even when the ball is there to be driven they often fail to get fully forward, bringing the edge into play.
A lot of tall, young fast bowlers, swayed quick and bouncy tracks, tend to err on the shorter side. But Prasidh, often, hits the good-length band of the back-of-length frequency, striking a batsman in a dilemma to thrust back or go forward. A brling, energetic action reminiscent of a young, pre-action tweak Javagal Srinath, he could whip up a devilish nip-backer like him, besides the craft to seam the ball away in favourable conditions and straighten after pitching. The away-seamer nailed centurion Jean du Plessis in the A game. The length and awkward bounce pushed him into the back-foot, but the line committed him to fiddling at the ball that seamed away. Like any modern-day cross-format bowler, he possesses the slower-ball assortments, which are all handy weapons in the longest form of the game too.
His biggest challenger for the slot is Mukesh Kumar, who made his Test debut against West Indies in Port of Spain before the World Cup. A domestic veteran, who seams the ball both ways, punctuated a lovely wr-snap at release, he did impress without looking devastating in his sole Test. But his balls skims off the surface rather than leap off it. He is reasonably tall, 6 feet, but shorter than Prasidh, besides being not as quick as Prasidh at full tilt. Kumar is more disciplined whereas Prasidh would intermittently slip in a boundary ball. Kumar could be the workhorse third seamer, but then for that they already have Thakur. In short , Kumar does not promise anything more than Siraj, Bumrah and Thakur do. Prasidh, on the other hand, brings the extra quotient of height. And height, to learn from the past in South Africa, could be of series-winning value.
