We haven’t played our best white-ball cricket outside India: Morkel

Wellington: India bowling coach Morne Morkel has admitted that the team has fallen short of expectations in white-ball cricket outside the country and stressed that the ongoing tour of New Zealand is an important opportunity to turn things around, with the visitors determined to produce a stronger brand of cricket.

Morkel pointed to India’s recent overseas struggles, particularly their performances in England, while underlining the amount of preparation and planning that had gone into the New Zealand assignment. He said the team had identified the tour as a significant challenge and was keen to make a statement through its performances.

“Our communication to this group has been clear for a long time. We obviously identified this as a big tour. We haven’t played the best of white-ball cricket outside India. I think back to England. So we put a big stamp on it on not really coming on this tour and playing a good brand of cricket. So through that, obviously hard work. There’s a lot of planning that goes into these sort of games. And then we have to sum up and read the conditions. Today again it might be quite different, quite wet underfoot. So again it’s going to be a nice challenge for the boys,” Morkel told broadcasters before the start of the second ODI on Saturday.

Adapting to New Zealand’s conditions, particularly the dimensions of the grounds, has also been an important part of India’s bowling preparations. Morkel was pleased with how the bowlers assessed the conditions and translated their plans into execution, pointing out that the dimensions of the grounds often dictate the lines and lengths required.

“The boys reacted to the conditions. It’s quite a rush, after the toss again to get ourselves going. But for me, just sort of, just taking the dimensions out, and the guys just executed the plan quite well, which is pretty good. I think over here in New Zealand, sometimes the fields will tell you what to bowl, but still you need to get the ball in the right areas,” he added.

Rather than adopting a uniform approach for the entire bowling attack, Morkel revealed that the coaching staff preferred to work with players individually, taking into account their respective strengths and skill sets. While collective discussions help establish what the team can expect from the conditions, the final preparations involve aligning each bowler’s approach with the demands of the game.

“I try to keep it more individual sort of based. We’ll have a group sit down in terms of what we potentially can expect. But all our guys are differently skilled. So for me it’s more tapping into those guys individually at training and warm-ups, and then sort of just a quick chat. They are all skillful. They know their game, they know how to go about their things, it’s just aligning all those small little things,” Morkel said.

Meanwhile, Morkel also reflected on Mohammed Shami’s retirement from Test cricket, describing the experienced pacer as someone who made his transition into the Indian dressing room considerably easier. Having joined the Indian setup while Shami was still part of the group, Morkel credited the fast bowler for helping him navigate the language barrier and settle into the environment.

“Yeah, I was quite fortunate when I first started with the group for Shami to be a part of the team. You know, highly skillful player, a quality guy to have around in the group. And I was quite lucky when I joined for him to bring sort of the Indian language into the dressing room. He helped me quite a lot. So a sad day to see him go. But yeah, I mean, he’s still bowling a lot of overs back home and it’s still great to see,” he said.