Aussie connect to Prasidh Krishna's growth

Chennai: Another match and another dazzling debut. India's happy problem of plenty found its newest addition in rookie pacer Prasidh Krishna -- a Brett Lee and masala dosa fan who got some top-notch guidance from none other than Jeff Thomson in his journey to the highest level.

Krishna registered a haul of 4/54, the best by an Indian debutant, in the opening ODI against England in Pune on Tuesday. The lanky bowler's performance was made more special by the resolve he showed after being hammered in his first spell. He leaked 37 runs in his first three overs. "My first day at work was a roller coaster ride. Never over until it's over. All's well that ends well. Cheers to this special match and many more to come," he tweeted on Wednesday.

The 25-year old Karnataka bowler loves his masala dosa and Brett Lee, according to his father Murali Krishna. In fact, the Australia connection is not limited to his admiration for Lee, one of the fastest to have played the game. It goes back a few years. He took up the game at the age of 11 and enjoyed stints in Australia with the legendary Thomson, the pace icon that many bowlers have grown up wanting to emulate.

It was in 2017 when, as part of the IDBI Federal Bowling Foundation, Krishna travelled to Australia along with Tushar Desphande and two others to train with Thomson. According to Makarand Waingankar, a former cricket administrator and columnist, the training at the Cricket Australia Academy in Brisbane proved extremely beneficial for Krishna. "The exposure Prasidh Krishna got at the CA Academy stood him in good stead and helped improve his skills," he told PTI.

Waingankar was all praise for the lanky bowler's "cricket intelligence" and said it was evident in how he bounced back after being hit for runs in his first three overs in international cricket. "He is very intelligent...I am talking about his cricket intelligence. This helped him bounce back after a tough start when he was taken apart by the England openers. "This showed the boy's character," the veteran columnist added.

M Senthilnathan, head coach at the MRF Pace Foundation where Krishna had trained, echoed similar views and said the bowler improved leaps and bounds since he was picked up in 2017 through his hard work and impressed on his ODI debut. "We selected him in 2017. He had done well for Karnataka in a game against the touring Bangladesh 'A' side in 2015 and that got him noticed. "After he came to the MRF Academy we worked on his physical side, he did gym work and we worked on his skills. He works very hard on his game," he added.

Also, learning from the great Glenn McGrath at the Academy helped a lot, Senthilnathan, a former India under-19 captain, said. Krishna also went to the CA Centre of Excellence in Brisbane in 2019 as part of MRF Pace Foundation's MoU with Cricket Australia. The academy head coach hailed Krishna's mental strength which helped him fight back after a tough initiation into international cricket.