Dinesh Karthik revealed his displeasure with the subpar showing by India’s fast bowlers, Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna, during the Boxing Day Test in Centurion against South Africa.
Thursday, December 28, saw the Men in Blue suffer a defeat. They lost the Test by an innings and 32 runs after making a mere 131 runs. Afterwards, team captain Rohit Sharma stood up for his bowling team in a post-match discussion. He highlighted their lack of experience playing on South African pitches.
Following Sharma’s defense, Karthik shared his thoughts on Cricbuzz. Here’s what he noted:
“Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna definitely need to up their game. Rohit Sharma is being very kind to them when he is saying that it is the first time for the bowlers and they are young bowlers, but Shardul was there on the previous tour as well and did pretty well. Today was a very ordinary performance from Shardul Thakur with the bat and the ball.”
Dinesh Karthik
In the Test, Shardul Thakur had a tough time. He ended up being the priciest Indian bowler, yielding 101 runs in 19 overs and just seizing a single wicket. Prasidh Krishna didn’t have a great first game. He ended up coughing up 93 runs in 20 overs and only managed to snare one wicket.
Karthik added on Krishna’s performance:
“Prasidh Krishna, yes, he is young and doesn’t have too much first-class experience under his belt, and it really showed with the ball as well. He was giving away one too many boundary balls. There was not any control that he was able to give the captain.”
Dinesh Karthik
The cricket expert noted that India’s rapid bowlers didn’t seem quite as intimidating without Mohammed Shami. He also specified how the team lacked the dependability of experienced pitchers Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma. He added:
“India prides itself in the last few years on how good the bowling attack is. But you could see that without Mohammed Shami there, this Indian attack is not what it used to be. Before, we had Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. They gave us at least consistency in length, and that was missing in a big way today as well.”
Dinesh Karthik
It is worth mentioning that Mohammed Shami was ruled out of the ongoing two-match Test series in South Africa due to an ankle injury.
Dinesh Karthik backs Mukesh Kumar to replace Prasidh Krishna in second Test
During the discussion, Dinesh Karthik reckoned that the Indian think tank should consider replacing Praisdh Krishna with right-arm pacer Mukesh Kumar.
He highlighted how Mukesh is an experienced bowler who has played a lot of domestic cricket. Karthik said:
“I do think Prasidh Krishna makes way for Mukesh Kumar. You get the feeling that they need a little more experience. Not that Mukesh Kumar has played a lot of international cricket, be he has played a lot of first-class cricket.”
Dinesh Karthik
The second and final Test of the series is scheduled to be played at Newlands in Cape Town from January 3 to 7.