Huge blow for Prasidh Krishna, ruled out of 2023 WC

Already out for 6 months, Prasidh might take more time to get fit

The cricketing fraternity is waiting with bated breath for India's pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah to return back in action from his stress fracture.

But amidst concerns about Bumrah and Shreyas Iyer's injury, one man who has slipped out of the radar is Karnataka fast bowler Prasidh Krishna, who has now been sidelined from competitive cricket for a period of six months.

And if people in the know how of developments are to be believed, he is running out of time and matches through which he can again be a potential contender for a World Cup berth.

In fact, Prasidh, who was being looked upon as one of India's potential white ball expert, last played against Zimbabwe in an ODI in Harare back in August, 2022 and since then has been out due to stress fracture.

Before injury, he had an impressive haul of 25 wickets from 14 ODIs at an economy rate of less than 5.50 (5.32) and an average (runs per wicket) lower than 24 (23.92).

Prasidh has been doing his intense rehabilitation program at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru but news coming out isn't a great one.

"Prasidh has a stress fracture and in case of this particular form of injury, you cannot put a date on prospective comeback," a BCCI source privy to development told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

"Every player has a different body type and recovery process and time would be different. It could be anything between six months to one year. In case of Prasidh, he is still not fit enough to return to play and it is unfortunate that he missed the entire domestic season," the source added.

With Karnataka unlikely to reach the final of Ranji Trophy, Prasidh's chances of testing himself is now limited to IPL where he plays for Rajasthan Royals.

But for him to play in IPL, he needs to regularly start bowling in the nets and put in miles on his legs in order to withstand the rigors of top flight cricket.

It would be really unfortunate if Prasidh missed the World Cup bus but at this point, there is imminent danger of it happening.

At the time when he got injured, he was ahead of Mohammed Siraj in the pecking order with his pace and disconcerting bounce but he will be racing against time to get fit during the IPL which will provide him with an outside chance of being in World Cup contention.