IPL 2025
Prasidh Krishna celebrates a wicket against DC © Sportzpics
It did raise a few eyebrows when the Gujarat Titans acquired Prasidh Krishna for a comparatively high price of INR 9.50 crores. He last featured in the tournament in 2022, missing out in both 2023 and 2024 and has made only sporadic appearances for his state and national team in the interim. Titans had already splashed INR 23 crores combined on Mohammed Siraj and Kagiso Rabada, both of whom share a few similar attributes with that of Prasidh.
But as of how things stand, Titans knew exactly what they were doing as they sit at the top of the points table at the halfway mark with Sai Sudharshan donning the Orange Cap and Prasidh the Purple Cap. Not only has Prasidh steeped up to fill the void left by a departing Rabada, he has emerged as the best seam bowler outside the Powerplay with all but one of his 14 wickets coming post the initial six overs.
The one attribute that separates him from most other Indian bowlers has been his height, something that made the national team invest in him despite his not so impressive fitness record. 110 of his 162 legal deliveries have been pitched short of a good length due to which he has accounted nine wickets at 12.77. No other bowler has inhabited in this length more than Prasidh and only Hardik Pandya has picked as many wickets hitting the hard lengths. This skill of his was on exhibition in Titans’ game against Royals in Ahmedabad on a red soil wicket where Prasidh picked 3 for 24. A delivery pitched 8.8 metres from the stumps climbed on a well-set Sanju Samson, who couldn’t get on top of the bounce even with both his feet up in the air, as he lobbed the ball to short third-man. It was followed by bouncing out Jofra Archer and Shimron Hetmyer with balls pitched around the 10-metre mark.
Prasidh by lengths in IPL 2025
Length Balls Wkts Avg SR ER Dot% Full 17 3 8.67 5.7 9.17 41.1 Good 35 2 28 17.5 9.6 37.1 Short 110 9 12.77 12.2 6.27 44.2
In their previous home game against Mumbai on a black soil pitch that was holding up, Prasidh went slightly fuller and took the pace off regularly as he ended with 2 for 18. He bowled a slower delivery once every four balls in that spell, two of them scalping Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma. Against Royals, only one delivery in the entire spell was under 128 kph with 14 of the 24 clocking 140+ kph.
In between the two games, he voyaged to his home ground at Chinnaswamy where he picked 1 for 26 castling Tim David with an inswinging yorker off the final ball of the innings that reversed in 2.2 degrees after the batter got the better of hard lengths earlier in the over, with luck playing a part.
In the top of the table clash against Delhi, he came out trumps against his senior state teammates KL Rahul and Karun Nair. The former was pushed back with a set of balls in the hard length area before an away swinging yorker that moved 2.4 degrees to trap him LBW, to bag his only wicket in the Powerplay. The in-form Karun Nair couldn’t keep a delivery down that pitched 8.9 meters and clocked 148 kph, that carried the top edge to the waiting hands of third man.
With his height and the ability to hit the deck remaining his USP, Prasidh has shown adaptability this season that made him a more rounded bowler across phases. Across the season, 53% of his deliveries were 140+ kph and 21% over 144 kph (90 mph) highlighting that he is operating near his optimal best. Titans sit at the top of the points table, and they have Prasidh to massively thank for that.
© Cricbuzz
