On Prasidh Krishna Replacing Hardik Pandya In India Squad, Rahul Dravid's 'Combination' Reasoning

As a rampant Team India were dealt a big blow with Hardik Pandya ruled out of the remainder of the ongoing Cricket World Cup 2023 with a ligament tear in his right ankle, head coach Rahul Dravid on Saturday explained the rationale behind replacing the talismanic all-rounder with promising but inexperienced tearaway quick Prasidh Krishna. Pandya limped off the field after injuring his ankle while trying to make a save off his own bowling in India's win over Bangladesh. He was taken for scans and missed out on the next few matches for the country. Krishna was added to the squad after his name was approved by the tournament's Event Technical Committee as a replacement for the all-rounder.

Weighing in on Hardik's absence and his replacement for the quadrennial showpiece at a press conference ahead of India's mouth-watering clash against high-flying South Africa at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday, coach Dravid said the thinking behind picking Prasidh was to further shore up India's fast bowling resources as the squad has enough slower operators to call upon.

"Think it's a pretty obvious thought process. After Hardik has been injured, which he has been for the last two or three games, and then obviously didn't play a couple of the games in the Australia series as well. We have played with a combination which has been three fast bowlers and two spinners. And yeah, in our reserves, in the guys sitting outside in the 15, we had a backup for the spin. We had a backup for the spin, we had a backup for the batting, and we had a backup in the bowling all around the category," Dravid said at the pre-match press conference on Saturday.

"So, we did recognize that if this is a combination we're going to take, and if there is