New Delhi, Aug 22 (IANS): Saba Karim, the former India cricketer and ex-member of the senior men's selection committee, expressed happiness over seeing the current team management persisting with fast bowler Prasidh Krishna in the ongoing ODI series against Zimbabwe despite not having great outings in previous series against the West Indies and England.
Though Krishna picked just two wickets in ODIs against England and took just one wicket in two matches against the West Indies, the Indian team still picked him for the Zimbabwe series. In the first two matches, Krishna returned with figures of 3/50 and 1/28 before being rested for the final ODI on Monday.
"Yes (on decision to persist with Krishna), and you know what, against West Indies in the ODI, if I remember correctly, he didn't have a very good outing. It's good to see that the Indian team management is persistent with Prasidh Krishna and that's been the hallmark of this new set-up," said Karim on 'Sports Over The Top' show on Sports18.
Karim further pointed out that sticking with players like Krishna, who can be beneficial for the Indian team in future has been a constant feature of the new Indian team management.
"Once they trust a player, they want to give him enough chances and that helps a player not to be so afraid of any failures and that is what we saw in the last outing of Prasidh Krishna. He did well, he was able to change his length. That wicket that he took of a Yorker against a well-settled bat. That was quite good to see."
At the same time, Karim pointed out that there is scope of improvement for Krishna to be a reliable bowler for India in future. "There's still so much to learn for him. His track record outside India hasn't been really good because he's more of a hitting the hard length kind of a bowler and abroad, you need to change your length so that you're able to pick wickets as well as be economical."
"But I think these are great signs for Prasidh Krishna as the more he plays I'm sure he'll improve, and he'll add to the rich pool of Indian pace bowlers that we see right now."