E.A.S. Prasanna Biography

E.A.S. Prasanna is a former Indian Test cricketer who served Indian cricket well with his spin bowling wizardry. His full name is Erapalli Anantharao Srinivas Prasanna and he was born on 22nd May, 1940 in Bangalore, Karnataka, India.

Due to his passion for the sport of cricket, Prasanna steadily climbed the ladder of success in Indian cricket. Despite taking a break from cricket to complete his engineering degree, E.A.S. Prasanna made a strong comeback in 1967 to eventually become a stalwart of Indian cricket. The major teams that E.A.S. Prasanna has represented are India, Karnataka and Mysore.

E.A.S. Prasanna was an outstanding right-arm spin bowler who specialized in off-spin and was also effective with the bat. Prasanna’s forte for spin included his amazing abilities to mentally wear out the batsman even before the delivery; such was his high regard in the cricket world.

With a patient yet attacking mindset, Prasanna was unstoppable even on good pitches, and his deliveries included variations of flight, tricky half-volleys, and loopy spin. Amongst the most successful and feared leg-spinners in Indian cricketing history, E.A.S. Prasanna along with Bishen Singh Bedi, B.S. Chandrashekhar and Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan constituted the renowned Indian spin quartet, that dominated spin bowling in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Erapalli Prasanna made his Test debut against England at Chennai in January 1962, and after returning from his five-year break, he readily bounced back with some notable innings. His most prolific performances, however, came under the captaincy of Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi.

Prasanna has appeared in 49 Tests, scoring 735 runs and taking 189 wickets, his best haul being 8/76. After the tour of Pakistan in 1978, Prasanna retired from international cricket, followed by teammates Bedi and Chandrasekhar.

He then continued the game at the first-class level leading Karnataka to the Ranji Trophy title on two occasions, thus ending the 15-year long Bombay’s reign. His 235 first-class matches resulted in a total of 2476 runs and 957 wickets.

For his outstanding performances and contribution towards Indian cricket, E.A.S. Prasanna was awarded the prestigious Arjuna Award in 1968, as well as the Castrol Lifetime Achievement Award in Cricket in 2006.