Despite picking up five wickets in the first Test of the five-match series against England at Headingley, India pacer Prasidh Krishna's performance came under scrutiny due to his high economy rate in both the innings. The 29-year-old gave away 128 runs in his 20-over spell in England's first innings and followed that up by leaking 92 runs in 15 overs on the second occasion.
The seamer maintained an economy rate of over six in both the innings and proved to be quite expensive against the hosts. Following this performance, former India cricketer Irfan Pathan criticized Krishna and made a brutal comparison of his economy rate in Tests to Jasprit Bumrah's economy rate in T20Is.
Pathan drew comparisons between Krishna and Bumrah's economy rate
"Just look at his economy combining both the innings. He is at No. 2 in terms of the worst economy for a fast bowler in history. Bumrah has this economy in T20s, nearly 6.50. So he will have to concentrate on his economy. He has good height and pace. He will have to learn as soon as possible how to bowl a consistent area according to the batter," Pathan said on Sony Sports Network.
It remains to be seen if Krishna gets picked for the second Test against England or if he gets dropped. India have both Akash Deep and Arshdeep Singh on the bench and one of them can make their way into the playing XI, replacing the tall seamer for the encounter at Edgbaston that commences from July 2.
Meanwhile, Bumrah, who was once again the star performer for India in the bowling department at Headingley, will be featuring in three Tests out of five in the ongoing series despite the Men in Blue suffering a defeat in the first match. Head coach Gautam Gambhir himself confirmed this in the post-match press conference, stating that managing the worlkoad of the 31-year-old is very important.
"No, we won't change the plans. I think for us, managing his workload is more important because there's a lot of cricket going forward, and we know what he brings to the table as well. So, before he came to the tour, it was already decided that he was going to play three Test matches. But let's see how his body turns out. We haven't decided which two other Test matches he's going to play," Gambhir stated.
Someone from the Indian bowling contingent will have to step up big time to fill Bumrah's void in the playing XI. This certainly won't be an easy task as the side have developed a dependancy on the pacer to get them wickets in crucial situations since the Border-Gavaskar series 2024/25 against Australia.