Muralikrishna Prasidh Krishna is an uncapped fast bowler who first showed his mettle against by picking up a five-fer against an International side whilst making his First-class debut. The tall-lanky pace bowler from Karnataka has drawn praises from several quarters and is one of the up and coming superstars in the Indian cricketing horizon.
Prasidh Krishna shot to glory came in 2015 when Bangladesh A came touring the country. The eastern neighbour of India were up against the Ranji-trophy champion side of Karnataka and this is where Prasidh Krishna got a taste of top-flight cricket. He took a wicket off his very first ball, dismissing Rony Talukdar, before taking the wickets of Anamul Haque, Soumya Sarkar and Nasir Hossain in his first spell to reduce Bangladesh A to 41/5. Karnataka went on to win the match by 4 wickets. He was merely a teenager (19) and picked up 5 wickets against a decent batting lineup.
Krishna made his List A debut for Karnataka in the 2016–17 Vijay Hazare Trophy on 25 February 2017 and since then has played in two Vijay Hazare Trophies. He emerged as the second-highest wicket-taker in the second one.
In August 2018, he was one of the 10 best fast bowlers outside the national team who were mentored at India A by Rahul Dravid and Paras Mhambrey. As a fruition to his efforts, Krishna was named in India A cricket team for the 2018 A-team Quadrangular Series in the same month.
It wouldn’t be hyperbole to say that injuries to other players opened up the IPL gates to the lanky pacer who made optimal use of the opportunities. Krishan was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders in 2018 as an injury-replacement for Kamlesh Nagarkoti. The Karnataka born bowler went on to make his debut when another young pacer Shivam Mavi got injured and Dinesh Karthik choose Krishna to replace him. In 18 matches so far he has picked up 14 wickets with a strike rate of 29 and with an economy rate of 9.32. These numbers are not entirely convincing, but in the two seasons gone by, Prasidh has shown tremendous improvement.
Krishna's tryst with the game started as a school boy where he joined his school team under the guidance of Srinivas Murthy at Carmel School in Padmanabhanagar. Prasidh confessed that he was a sports buff right from that early age. Sport is in Prasidh’s blood, his mother being a former national-level volleyball player.
In January this year, India captain Virat Kohli described Prasidh as a “surprise package” for ICC T20 World Cup 2020. However, with the tournament being postponed and an IPL season around the corner, Krishna has the opportunity to impress the Indian skipper and make his mark for a spot in the Indian team when the time comes.
