Under the newly appointed head coach of the Indian cricket team- Gautam Gambhir, India is yet to select their new bowling coach, as they are going with Sairaj Bahutule in the upcoming Sri Lanka trip, for the three-match T20I and ODI series. However, they have already selected Abhishek Nayar, Ryan Ten Doeschate, and T Dilip in the coaching management.
So many renewed former Indian bowlers like Vinay Kumar, Lakshmipathy Balaji, and Zaheer Khan were discussed for the role of the bowling coach. But India’s head coach has given his weight towards a new name for the post.
Before the squad announcement for the Indian team’s Sri Lanka, it was known from the sources, that Gambhir held a meeting with the selection committee to inform his choice of players and the coaching staff. However, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has yet to give the green signal to that potential appointment.
Former Protea pacer to join India for Bangladesh home series
The former South Africa fast bowler Morne Morkel was always the first choice of India’s new head coach, Gautam Gambhir, having worked with him during the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) team, besides being a member of Kolkata Knight Riders under the captaincy of the left-handed opening batter.
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It has been known that even though the formalities are yet to be completed, in all likelihood, Morkel is expected to be announced as India’s new bowling coach by the BCCI, before their home Test series against Bangladesh.
‘The formalities haven’t been completed yet but they will hopefully be done soon and Morne Morkel is likely to come on board after the Sri Lanka series.’ The source revealed to ‘News18’.
Having worked with him in the past, Gambhir has praised the tall pacer and how he manages the young pace bowlers of the teams, as they have also built a nice working relationship, which was quite visible during their tenure in the Super Giants side.
Morkel also has a huge experience of 12 years of international cricket, where he has celebrated around 550 wickets across the three formats, besides being calm in the process and handling the bowlers pretty well.
‘Bahut calm banda hai yaar (He is such a calm person). It was our good fortune to work with him at LSG. Even when the days are bad, which is quite common in T20s, he would hardly discuss about what went wrong. It always was what was right and how we can make it consistent.’ A young fast bowler who has been part of the LSG team for three years observed Morkel, who has the experience of being the bowling coach of Pakistan in the past.
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Avesh Khan, who was part of the LSG side for 2022 and 2023, spoke about how the 40-year-old pacer helped him in making some technical adjustments besides teaching him different variations and the time to bowl those sort of balls to the batters in the shortest format of the game.
For the upcoming Sri Lanka series, India is going with Sairaj Bahutule as their bowling coach, before Morkel is likely to join the blue brigade from the home Test series against Bangladesh. The biggest challenge for them will be the upcoming five-match Test series in Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, later this year.