It’s all about finding balance, says bowling coach Morkel

Bowling coach Morne Morkel said India is working to include Kuldeep Yadav in the playing XI but maintaining batting depth is crucial against England. He discussed selection dilemmas, bowling workloads, and captain Shubman Gill’s strategy after the third day of the fourth Test.

HYDERABAD: India’s bowling coach Morne Morkel said the team management was trying its best to find ways for left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav to get into the team.

Speaking to the media at the end of the third day’s play in the fourth Test at Old Trafford against England on Friday night, Morkel said it was all about finding the balance and how to get the batting lineup to be a bit longer and stronger.

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“We’ve seen in the past that we’ve lost wickets in clumps. Kuldeep is world class and he’s bowling really well at the moment, so we’re trying our best to find ways for him to get in. But unfortunately, with that, just to balance with batting throws it out a little bit,” he said.

Questioned whether India’s seemingly defensive approach, Morkel said, for the team, giving that a little bit of extra batting protection, wanting to get totals of 400-plus was the reason. “You need it against England, especially, the way they play their brand of cricket,” he added.

Reflecting on the wicket, Morkel said, “To be honest, the wicket had been dry and it’s actually spun a little bit. “So, that brings off-spinning all-rounder Washington (Sundar) and left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja into the game. So Kuldeep, we are trying to find a way for him, but it is just more consistent runs from our top six that we want so that we can bring a guy like Kuldeep in,” he explained.

On the need to have proper strike bowlers to reduce the batters’ burden by winning them matches, Morkel said there’s always an option of going in with quicks and picking your six best batters.

“All those discussions we have had or we do discuss. But I think so far in this match, the last two Test matches, the guys who have played have done a good job in terms of spin bowling. We were ever so close to winning that Test match at Lord’s. We had a great Test match at Edgbaston. So I think so far we’ve played good cricket, good cricket bar yesterday’s bowling performance,” he explained.

“On a surface where it gets a little bit flat, you need a little bit of energy behind the ball. I think that’s definitely one of the factors for us so far in our bowling innings. Just getting that little bit of extra zip off the wicket to create the opportunities for caught behind and lbw,” Morkel said.

“I mean to look at the workloads of guys like Siraj and those sorts of guys, they’ve had heavy workloads. Anshul Kamboj’s first Test match so far and it’s important for us to grow and develop a nice fast-bowling unit. So not too much to judge on that,” he said.

On pacer Shardul Thakur’s lack of bowling, Morkel said it was a bit of a tough fit when you have four seamers. “When you’re going at five runs and over, I think as a captain, you want to bring strike bowlers back to try and take the wickets. Unfortunately, it happened for Shadul in that first Test match as well,” he said.

“Shubman (captain Shubman Gill) just made the call in there to stick a little bit longer with the seam options,” Morkel said. “I think in the first couple of days we saw the ball moving around and seaming around and pace on the ball was the way to go, and then when we got the opportunity to bowl, we missed our length,” he said.

“So did we bowl enough good balls to say that we need to go to spin straightaway? I don’t think so. And I think when he got the opportunity today with the ball in hand, Washi did a great job for us,” Morkel said.