Prasidh has developed into world-class bowler: Morne Morkel
India bowling coach Morne Morkel showered encomium on pacer Prasidh Krishna for ignoring “outside voices” to work hard on his game, developing into a “world-class bowler.”
Prasidh took three wickets (3/47) in an intense 14-over spell across the day to lead India’s bowling unit against Sri Lanka on the third day of the second Test here on Tuesday. “It (the spell) showed the character of Prasidh. He has the media on his back, the commentators on his back, to fight through that…and his bowling at the moment is very impressive,” Morkel began the post-day press meet.
Morkel was delighted to see Prasidh operating calmly through a zillion distracting voices. “It’s about quieting those voices and just playing cricket. As a team, we always knew about his potential. As soon as you get into this environment, you want to impress a billion cricket fans, you are under the microscope, every movement gets analysed, and sometimes you try and fight against those elements,
“But Prasidh, for me, the biggest change is just to let go of all those thoughts, all those comments that are made on him…he is just enjoying his cricket.” The South African was delighted to see the single-minded efforts of the Karnataka pacer yielding some wonderful results.
“He is an extremely hard worker, he is a guy that will do a lot of homework, going into games, doing a lot of research about opposition. So for him, he is a massive student of the game.
“It is just great to see him grow and develop into a world-class bowler. I think for India, in all formats, he has the potential and talent to play for a very long time,” he said.
Morkel then proceeded to detail the ingredients that make Prasidh a successful bowler at the highest level.
“Look, a lot of the time it is a captain and coach’s decision trying to create something if there is not much on the ball or not much happening off the surface. I think as a world class bowler, it is very important to always try and create something.
“Prasidh has got that extra pace and bounce, so we are going to use him in certain phases where it might be risky but we might get the reward as well.” But several times, Prasidh has leaked runs while fitting into that battering ram role the team has been trying to assign to him.
For Morkel, it was nothing but a passable occupational hazard. “There were a lot of times, I think back in England (2025), where we had to put our hand up because we were asking the boy to do a certain job. Although the results sometimes might not go his way, the whole team is behind him.
“That is all that matters is how we sort of get around him when we move away and sit in a hotel to talk through those things and answer the questions that he might have and we give him clarity and confidence going into that.
“It is sometimes a tough job, a donkey job. But I think he has done that very well for us in the last two or three years. His game has also grown now and he can hit that fuller length much more consistently, which is great to see,” he detailed.
