Bengaluru, May 15 (PTI) Gujarat Titans pacer Prasidh Krishna emphasised the need for bowlers to develop variations to tackle batters’ domination in the IPL 2026, which has been a high-scoring spectacle so far.
In the current iteration of the tournament, teams have been posting and chasing totals well in excess of 200 with consummate ease, and Prasidh stressed on the proper execution of skills to counter the situation.
“Yeah, to have that variations…it is very, very important as a bowler. You try and make sure the average scores only keep going down and it’s about all the work that you put in behind the scenes,” Prasidh told PTI.
“You need to prepare for situations, pitches, grounds, batsmen and all of those things, and make sure you execute all that because this is such a high-skilled tournament that the room for error is pretty less.
“But it is just about coming and bowling the right deliveries there. Make sure you know what the intent of the batsman is and read the situation, have clarity about what you want to do and just commit to doing that,” he added.
Prasidh, who has taken 14 wickets from eight matches so far in the tournament, himself has mastered a slow bouncer, and has been using that delivery to good effect in this IPL.
The Karnataka man detailed how that particular delivery made its way into his arsenal.
“It’s a very funny thing because I just ended up trying it at practice. One of our net bowlers, Darshan Nalkande, was bowling it and then I spoke to him. And he told me how to do it. It felt really good in one of the practice sessions that I did,” he said.
“Then I just took it to the game. It was just about feeling confident and trusting your delivery and trusting your team to let you do what you want to do. And then when things work out, it works out. But there was a lot of work that went behind bowling that one.” But Prasidh said understanding one’s strengths hold a significant place in the success of a bowler in this frenetic format.
“The hard (Test match) length definitely works. But there are multiple ways somebody can bowl a yorker or a slow bouncer. Lasith Malinga did it. Jaspreet Bumrah does it.
“So, it’s just about what’s your strength. What is the right ball on that ground at that situation and then you just end up bowling a lot more of that,” he said.
The 30-year-old said it has become practically impossible to bank on a predetermined plan in T20s, and a bowler needs to learn to think on the feet during a match.
“See, we have to bowl 24 balls in a T20 game. When a fast bowler gets hit over the boundary multiple times, all that you gotta do is what can I do better now? So, if it means whether a slower ball or a bouncer or a yorker, you just go to that.
“You don’t really come pre-prepared saying this is how many balls I am going to bowl fast. But then definitely bowling fast helps you because it just gives you that little bit of a room versus batsmen,” he said.
Despite all the plans in place, Prasidh knows that he might still have to go through an expensive spell or an over in T20s. So, how can he regroup and do better after getting carted around by batters? “I think sport in itself is such a blessing that every single day you start afresh. T20 is even further as it is about every single ball. There may be a day when you have bowled 23 balls and gone for 65 runs. But then you have to defend 3 off 1 ball, and you are still in the game.
“So, you can still bowl a great ball and win the game for your team. So, that is how you can break it down and say it is 24 balls that I am being part of.
“Even if 23 balls go really bad for you, it is the 24th ball that can actually make a difference and win the game for the team. It definitely helps when you can bring it down to that level,” he noted.
The GT connection =========== But all of this, what Prasidh said would not have fructified without “intentional” training sessions under the strict watch of GT head coach Ashish Nehra, a former India pacer.
“It’s a great team and the people here are really good. I have completely made use of everybody around me. It’s so consistent in what we do. One thing that I would actually say is very different here is how much work we put in. We spend a lot of hours practicing.
“We make sure we have intentional practice, and that is what I would call it. We work on what we want to do. And yeah, it’s just that I think having stable minds around you helps a lot,” he said.
Prasidh said bowling alongside and having conversations with senior pacers in the team such as Rabada, Mohammad Siraj and Jason Holder have helped him polish his craft.
“It does help me better myself a lot because, you know, when you’re dealing with the greats in the game, you have Siraj, Rabada, Holder, Rashid…in fact, the new guys in our team also have a lot of skills.
“So, as a bowler, you are always looking to learn from each other. Keep chatting with each other. It’s not just in practice, but it’s also outside in our team room, at meals, in the buses. We keep chatting and then keep trying to learn from each other,” he explained.PTI UNG SSC SSC
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