Venkatesh Prasad: 'The current pace attack is the best India has ever had' 

Former pacer Venkatesh Prasad, who played 33 Tests and 161 ODIs for India, has called the team’s current bowling attack ‘fantastic’. He also added that it is the best the Indian cricket team has ever seen.

Prasad was speaking to Sportskeeda in a Facebook Live session when he said that the current bowling attack has all it needs to be the best in the world.

“They have got speed, fitness, swing, variations – they have change of pace, they have yorkers, they have bouncers. I think this is the best fast bowling attack India has ever had. It is not just one or two or three or four. There is a fifth and sixth bowler. The talent pipeline is brilliant,” Prasad said.

When asked if he thinks the pace attack is slightly dependent on Jasprit Bumrah, Prasad opined that each player in the team is talented. He said that there is no one-man show in the team.

“I don’t think the team is dependent on just one or two players. On a whole, every single one has got enormous talent,” he said.

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Venkatesh Prasad on bowlers not being made captains

The 50-year-old also spoke about the trend in which batsmen have assumed the role of captain. Kapil Dev and Anil Kumble are among the rare cases of cricketers, whose primary skill was bowling, captaining a team.

Prasad feels that bowlers are not made captains due to the additional workload they have on the field. He also believes that anyone with good leadership qualities, irrespective of the playing role, can become a captain.

“See, it has nothing to go with being a bowler or batsman. Probably why I think they tend to choose batsmen is only because, look as a bowler one is you got to bowl there and top of that you get tired, physically and mentally. And then you have to be thinking of the other bowlers, the bowling changes, the field placements and so on. That puts more pressure on the captain if he happens to be a bowler. But if somebody has got good leadership qualities I don’t think it matters if he is a batsman or bowler. But Kapil Dev and Kumble handed it really well.”