Not the quickest, not the meanest, but Prasidh Krishna is once again reminding opposition batters of what he can do with a cricket ball in his hand.
His last-over performance against Delhi Capitals in a match that Gujarat Titans won by one run still lingers in the mind. From a lost cause, David Miller had dragged Delhi back into the contest with a stunning assault, leaving the home team needing 13 from the final over.
Miller then launched Prasidh for a monstrous 106-meter six, bringing the equation down to two runs from two balls. That’s when Prasidh, after a quick discussion with GT captain Shubman Gill, held his nerve. What followed were two perfectly executed slower bouncers that denied Miller and sealed a dramatic win. Gill later revealed that this was a premeditated option – one Prasidh had been diligently working on.
It takes nerves of steel to deliver under that kind of pressure, especially after being dispatched into the stands moments earlier. But Prasidh showed exactly why he is becoming one of the most dependable bowlers in crunch situations.
Fast forward to Sunday in Lucknow. Bowling first, GT were set on course for their second win of the season largely thanks to Prasidh’s outstanding spell of 4/28.
The blueprint for his success was clear and consistent: hard lengths. For the modern viewer, it’s the buzzword of T20 bowling. For traditionalists, it’s simply that awkward short-of-a-good-length delivery that forces batters into indecision. Prasidh deployed it masterfully.
Introduced in the seventh over, he struck twice in the space of three balls. Both Aiden Markram and Ayush Badoni fell attempting to pull deliveries that climbed just enough to mistime, finding the fielder at deep midwicket.
In his second spell, Prasidh needed just three balls to remove Nicholas Pooran, who swatted a short ball straight to mid-off. And then, with the very first ball of his fourth spell, he dismissed Mukul Choudhary with a cleverly disguised slower bumper.
If this feels like a well-rehearsed script, that’s because it is. This isn’t a new dimension to Prasidh’s game — it’s a refined one. In last year’s IPL, he marked his comeback season by claiming the Purple Cap, finishing with 25 wickets. Notably, 11 of those came in the middle overs – the most by a pacer – and 12 off those hard lengths, thus underlining his value beyond just the powerplay or death overs.
Even more impressive was his ability to induce false shots. At 41%, he led all pace bowlers in that metric in 2025, a testament to how effectively he uses hard lengths to disrupt rhythm and timing.
Four games into the 2026 season, Prasidh has already surged to the top of the wicket charts with 10 scalps, moving past Ravi Bishnoi.
Gujarat may still have a long road ahead in their playoff push, but in Prasidh they possess a genuine wicket-taker – one who is fast becoming a menace, one hard-length delivery at a time.
