Team India bowling coach Morne Morkel applauded India pacer Prasidh Krishna for ignoring “outside voices” to work hard on his game, developing into a “world-class bowler.” However, Prasidh took three wickets (3/47) in his 14-over spell across the day to lead India’s bowling unit against Sri Lanka on the third day of the second Test here on Tuesday as well.

“It (the spell) showed the character of Prasidh. He has the media on his back, the commentators on his back, to fight through that…and his bowling at the moment is very impressive,” Morkel began the post-day press meet. “It’ is about quieting those voices and just playing cricket. As a team, we always knew about his potential. As soon as you get into this environment, you want to impress a billion cricket fans, you are under the microscope, every movement gets analysed, and sometimes you try and fight against those elements. But Prasidh, for me, the biggest change is just to let go of all those thoughts, all those comments that are made on him…he is just enjoying his cricket.”

He was also delighted to see the single-minded efforts of the speedster yielding some wonderful results as well.

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“He is an extremely hard worker, he is a guy that will do a lot of homework, going into games, doing a lot of research about opposition. So for him, he is a massive student of the game. It is just great to see him grow and develop into a world class bowler. I think for India, in all formats, he has the potential and talent to play for a very long time,” he again said.

Morne Morkel then also shared what makes Prasidh Krishna a successful bowler at the highest level.

“Look, a lot of the time it is a captain and coach’s decision trying to create something if there is not much on the ball or not much happening off the surface. I think as a world class bowler, it is very important to always try and create something. Prasidh has got that extra pace and bounce, so we are going to use him in certain phases where it might be risky but we might get the reward as well.”

“There were a lot of times, I think back in England (2025), where we had to put our hand up because we were asking the boy to do a certain job. Although the results sometimes might not go his way, the whole team is behind him. That is all that matters is how we sort of get around him when we move away and sit in a hotel to talk through those things and answer the questions that he might have and we give him clarity and confidence going into that. It is sometimes a tough job, a donkey job. But I think he has done that very well for us in the last two or three years. His game has also grown now and he can hit that fuller length much more consistently, which is great to see,” Morne Morkel concluded.