Indian pacer Prasidh Krishna suffered a left quadriceps injury on the opening day of Karnataka’s Ranji Trophy match against Gujarat in Ahmedabad on Friday and was consequently dropped out of the Indian team for the first two Tests of the five-match series against England, starting on January 25.
Making his debut for India against South Africa, Prasidh Krishna was expected to trouble the Proteas batsmen with his ability to extract extra bounce off the surface. However, he failed to utilize the conditions and gave away many easy runs on the conditions that favoured the bowlers. He took just two wickets in the two Tests, averaged 65, and was India’s most expensive bowler across the games, with an economy rate of 4.64.
On his Test debut, Prasidh Krishna took one wicket and gave away 93 runs in 20 overs against South Africa. He was retained in the XI for the second Test and struggled in the second innings, allowing 27 runs in four overs picking up the wicket of Kagiso Rabada.
Returning to domestic cricket after a tough outing in South Africa, The Karnataka pacer walked off the field after bowling 14.5 overs in the game, picking wickets for Manan Hingrajia and Siddharth Desai. According to PTI, Prasidh will not take further part in the game. Though the extent of the injury is unknown, Quadriceps injuries normally heal in four to six weeks, depending on severity.
The Karnataka team physio is now looking after Prasidh, but as a BCCI-contracted player, he is likely to connect with the India A support staff, who are also in Ahmedabad for the two-day encounter against the touring England Lions.
With seasoned Indian pacer Mohammed Shami still not recovering from injury, India’s frontline pace options in the first two Tests against England would be Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, and Avesh Khan.
Mohammed Shami has not played a competitive game since the World Cup final on November 19. The right-arm pacer starred in the World Cup, finishing the tournament as the highest wicket-taker despite not playing the first four games and the team management would be hopeful of having him for the final three games of the high-octane series before IPL 2024.
The first two Tests will be held in Hyderabad (January 25-29) and Visakhapatnam (February 2-6) before the teams head to Rajkot, Ranchi, and Dharamsala.
