Former England skipper Michael Vaughan while lauding Indian pacer Prasidh Krishna for his heroics on debut credited former Indian captain and current NCA director Rahul Dravid for installing the right mentality in the players.
Prasidh Krishna was one of the main reasons behind Team India’s victory over England in the first ODI at Pune. The lanky pacer returned with the figures of 4/54, the best bowling figures by an Indian bowler on his debut.
Krishna’s ODI debut was a roller coaster ride. He didn’t start off well. Chasing the target of 318 runs, England openers Jason Roy (46) and Jonny Bairstow (94) were on an absolute rampage as they took him to the cleaners and the lanky pacer conceded 37 runs in his first three overs.
However, in his second spell, Krishna bounced back hard and broke the 135 runs opening partnership between English openers by removing Jason Roy.
The Karnataka pacer later removed Ben Stokes, Sam Billings and Tom Curran to help his team beat the visitors by 66 runs in the first ODI of the three-match series.
Rahul Dravid is doing a great job taking care of second-string players at the NCA- Sourav Ganguly
While talking to Cricbuzz, former Indian skipper Michael Vaughan credited former Indian player Rahul Dravid, who is the current NCA director, for installing the right mentality in the younger players. He added that players are brought into the Indian team through a system, which is absolutely right.
“Whatever India are doing behind the scenes, I know we keep mentioning the IPL but I think Rahul Dravid with his A-side and development program is clearly installing the right mentality in his players.
“All these players are being brought through the system into the international India team which is a huge pressure cooker. Full credit to the system that India has produced, they are getting it absolutely right,” Michael Vaughan told Cricbuzz.
Vaughan said that despite the culture created by Indian skipper Virat Kohli and head coach Ravi Shastri individuals are giving themselves the belief to go out and perform.
“It is very easy to say that the culture might be good, that Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri have created a nice culture but it is the individuals that are giving themselves the belief to go out there and perform. There is only you that can do it. No one else can do it for you,”
Vaughan further lauded Prasidh Krishna for the character he showed after he was smashed all over the ground by England openers in his debut ODI match. He added that bowlers like Krishna can unsettle batsmen by bowling short bowls at a decent pace.
“A young debutant with great character. To bounce back the way that he did today just shows that he is made of the right stuff. That’s why these kinds of bowlers are picked in white-ball cricket.
They may go for a few runs, but they get wickets. They unsettle the batting unit. They bowl a few short bowls at a decent pace. Every now and then they get wickets with poor balls because the batters think they can crash them to the boundary at a regular occurrence,” he concluded.
India and England will once again lock horns in the second ODI at the same venue on Friday, March 26.
(Cricbuzz inputs)
