Pune: He overcame an early assault to be India's wrecker-in-chief on debut and rookie pacer Prasidh Krishna on Tuesday said he would like to make a name for himself as a "hit-the-deck" bowler who can break partnerships whenever needed.
With figures of 4/54 in 8.1 overs in the 66-run win over England on Tuesday in the opening ODI, the 25-year-old Krishna became the first Indian bowler to take four (or more) wickets on his ODI debut.
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But it was a nervy start for the Karnataka player as Jason Roy (46) and Jonny Bairstow (94) took him to the cleaners early on, resulting in him conceding 37 runs in his first three overs. He got his revenge by dismissing Roy to break the intimidating partnership.
"It didn't start off well, and they came hard at us because we bowled poorly, but we had belief. We picked wickets in a cluster and that helped us a lot," Krishna said after the match reflecting rather modestly on his performance.
"I understood after my third over, I can't bowl full, and then I hit good length areas, and let the ball do the rest," he added.
Krishna enjoyed a good Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign for Karnataka earlier this year, claiming 14 wickets in seven matches at an average of 24.5.
In the IPL, he turns up for the Kolkata Knight Riders and he is grateful for that experience.
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"IPL has helped me, but it's important in a 10-over format it's more important to come back. I'd like to be known as a hit-the-deck bowler, and I'm trying to get the length more consistently," he said referring to the ability to extract extra bounce from the track.
"...I'm going to go back to the drawing board and improve upon it. I hope I can be the partnership breaker for long, because the team needed it at the time, so I was happy to do it," said the six-footer, described as a potential X-factor by skipper Virat Kohli much before he made his debut.
