‘I will not pick this gentleman, Prasidh Krishna’: Shubman Gill, Gautam Gambhir given repeated reminders by Atherton

‘I will not pick this gentleman, Prasidh Krishna’: Shubman Gill, Gautam Gambhir given repeated reminders by Atherton

Despite being rated very highly by the ones who matter in Indian cricket, Prasidh Krishna's return in Test matches has been rather disappointing, to say the least. The right-arm pacer, who is in the middle of his fifth Test match, is currently nudging an unwanted record for the worst economy rate by a frontline bowler. Krishna's current economy rate is well above 5. While he has not even bowled 1000 balls in Test match cricket or played at least 10 Test matches to qualify for the record books, the signs are alarming.

Cricket - International Test Match Series - First Test - England v India - Headingley Cricket Ground, Leeds, Britain - June 22, 2025 India's Prasidh Krishna celebrates with Shubman Gill after taking the wicket of England's Harry Brook, caught by Shardul Thakur Action Images via Reuters/Ed Sykes(Action Images via Reuters)

In the ongoing second Test between India and England, Krishna is leaking runs at 5.50 runs per over (at the time of publishing this) with no wickets to show for. At one point, he had figures of five over 50 for none. His short-ball tactic fell flat against England's Jamie Smith and Harry Brook. In one over in the first session of Day 3, Krishna was hit for 23 runs by Smith, who got stuck into him.

In the previous Test, Krishna picked up five wickets but was the only bowler to concede more than six an over in both innings. He went for 128 runs in his 20 overs in the first innings for three wickets and in the second, he gave away 92 runs in 15 overs for two wickets.

Former England captain Michael Atherton reminded India captain Shubman Gill, who also leads Krishan in the IPL and head coach Gautam Gambhir that he would not have picked Prasidh Krishna in India's XI for this Test. Instead, he would have gone with Kuldeep Yadav, an attacking spinner who would have come in handy in the second innings of this Test.

"I wouldn't pick this gentleman, Prasidh Krishna. I would have picked Kuldeep Yadav," said Atherton in commentary when Krishna was being hammered all over the ground by Smith and Brook.

Atherton had said something similar right after the toss of this Test match. The former England captain said India would have been better off picking a genuine wicket-taker like Kuldeep in their XI, especially when Jasprit Bumrah was not playing. In his earlier remarks, Atherton said he would have gone with Arshdeep and Kuldeep as specialist bowlers instead of Krishna and Washington Sundar.

Krishna generally bowls at over 140 km/h, but when he was asked to bowl the bouncers at Smith, his pace dropped to the mid-130s. This allowed enough time for Smith on a slow pitch to rock back onto his backfoot and bring out the pull shots.

This did not go down well with former India pacer Varun Aaron. "Too many bouncers, too many short balls. On a slow pitch, when none of your bowlers are consistently pushing the 145 kph mark, you cannot afford to bowl that many short deliveries. Indian bowlers have the skill to keep it on that ideal length — keep hitting the stumps. Sustained pressure is what gets you wickets. You can't expect things to happen immediately all the time," he said on JioHotstar.