Follow UsIndia’s pace-bowling unit at Headingley in the first Test looked like it was Jasprit Bumrah and others. None of the other pacers, including Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur, were able to nail down their bowling plans to the T, making it a terrible viewing for the fans.
While there’s already tons of post-mortems on the back of India’s staggering loss, Indian pacer Prasidh accepted his mistakes, and added that it is his ‘responsibility’ to get better for the second Test, on July 2 (Wednesday) at Edgbaston.
"I had a few conversations with a few of them about this game. I definitely would want to bring that [economy] down to whatever best I can do, and yeah, I think I'm learning as well, I can't say anything, it's up to me, it's my responsibility to get better, and that's what I'm trying, that's what I'm working on, and I just want to make sure I put in the right kind of work and come back here and put up better numbers," Krishna said ahead of the second Test.
The right-arm speedster also reckoned that the outfield at Headingley was fast, and even the smallest of errors were punished.
"Every time I come into bowl, I'm definitely looking to bowl a maiden and I'm not really trying to give away boundaries or anything," Krishna said. "The outfield [at Headingley] was fast, the lengths, lines that I bowled were not perfect to be honest, at most times, and they took me on. Some of them were edges, some of them I tried bowling bouncers, and I ended up giving runs.
"So yeah, I definitely did not bowl the lengths that I wanted. Yeah, I think so... not wanting to float it up there is definitely one of the reasons, and also, it honestly took me some time to get used to the slope, that's why, yeah, no reasons why I shouldn't be able to do it as a professional, but I take complete responsibility about it, and maybe I'll do it better next time," Krishna added.
However, at the same time, Prasidh was India’s second-best bowler in the clash, picking up five wickets. But the worry for the pacer was his economy rate, which stood at 6.28, and it was the only instance of a bowler in Test cricket history having an economy of above 5 across both innings.
"So I think somebody in the team had to do it, and if I sit back and say, 'I want to look at my numbers, what my economy is,' and not really look at the wickets, it cost me a 4 and a 6, and then Jamie Smith got out, so if it means that I do that and get a wicket, I'm happy to do it, but definitely every time I come on to the bowl, I am looking to keep the economy down and build the pressure up.
Another aspect where India suffered in the first Test was their lower-order batting, which suffered an extraordinary collapse across both innings - 7/41 and 6/31, which prevented them from posting a huge total.
"As the lower-order batsmen, we definitely are working on it... if you look at our nets session, we are putting in the work, I think it is about putting your mind in there as well, making sure you trust yourself, trust the skill that you have, and be there at the crease for a little longer, and then the numbers and the runs are going to show, and we are working towards it."