Team lacks competitiveness: Prasanna on Karnataka side

EAS Prasanna's vintage comes through in his storytelling as he hops about, somehow gracefully, searching for the right words to deliver an anecdote or two. His charm is still in abundance. But, when it comes to Karnataka cricket, his suaveness is replaced by paternal tenderness in words and tone.

The cornerstone of Karnataka's maiden Ranji Trophy victory during the 1973-74 season, the legend behind 189 Test scalps, and one of the finest off-spinners in the history of the sport, didn't seem too concerned about the State team's recent form or the available talent. He only had an issue, a minor one at that, with their mindset. 

Karnataka have not won a Ranji Trophy title in over a decade, and given their standing at the moment, they won't fancy a spot in the knockouts this season. As for their Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy run, Mayank Agarwal's men lost four out of seven games to rule themselves out of the quarterfinals as of Thursday. Safe to say, Karnataka have not had the best of domestic seasons, and given the current composition of the side, it's hard to put them in contention for the knockouts in the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy too. 

"The Karnataka cricket team is one of the strongest teams in the country, and we have been that for a long time now," Prasanna tells DH. "Some of these results are also a product of other teams becoming professional and improving."

"Cricket is evolving quickly, and I think the Karnataka side will catch up. They're very talented, but they maybe lacking a bit of competitiveness. You need that chip on your shoulder. Once they have that confidence, this team has all the potential to win across all formats."

One of the biggest concerns for Karnataka over the last five years has been the lack of a wicket-taking spinner in their midst. The likes of Shreyas Gopal and K Gowtham have been reliable, good even, but they don't exactly mimic the quality of the spinners Karnataka has historically produced. 

"The shorter version of the game has forced the bowlers to bowl flatter. Spin, as an art form, has changed because batting has evolved rapidly," he expounds. "One of the things I have noticed is that spinners are told not to spin the ball, they're losing out on their natural talent. They're bowling with a negative approach, and that doesn't give you the room to improve on your strengths."

Without even being prompted at this stage, Prasanna goes onto speak of how he or someone like his former team-mate Bishan Singh Bedi would have gone about bowling in this era. 

"(laughs) we would have done really well. The one thing we would have done is bowled at these batsmen at the nets and figured them out. Our thing was simple: if we can get them out at nets, then we can get them out in a match," he says. 

"Also, because these batsmen want to go after everything, we would have been more involved in the game. My logic is that if you're anyway getting hit over the ropes, you may as well learn how to control flight and deceive them in the air and then off the surface rather than firing it in and hope to tie them down. They're steering away from their natural abilities, and that's not good for cricket." 

"Winning a match requires you to pick up 20 wickets so we need to develop bowlers who can do that. We have some good pacers in the side but we need to develop our spinners. We need to trust them," he adds.