In keeping with head coach Gautam Gambhir’s policy of filling the starting lineup with multi-skilled cricketers, bowling coach Morne Morkel wants Mumbai all-rounder Shivam Dube to come up as a backup medium pacer before the T20 World Cup.
“For me, it’s always important to see a guy like Shivam that can bowl four overs,” on the sidelines of the team’s net practice at the ICC Academy, Morkel informed Indian reporters.
“I’m always pushing for all-rounders to work hard on both skills. Sometimes guys can get a little bit naughty in practice and focus just on one. Here in this environment, we want to leave no stone unturned,” the former Proteas fast bowler said.
According to Morkel, there may come a strange day when the whims of this format, where the best can be belted carelessly, make the sixth and seventh options inevitable.
“On the day, we’re going to need somebody to do the work for us. Conditions might favour him more than somebody else. For us, it’s about being professional.
“It’s about taking responsibility of putting quality work in there on the day when you’re called upon by Surya to do the job. You’ve to be ready to do that.”
Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Axar Patel, and Ravindra Jadeja were the four specialist spinners that India used at the Champions Trophy. However, that was in March, and Morkel reminded everyone that September wickets at the Dubai Stadium are considerably more fresh and less worn out.
“Again, we need to go and look at the wicket. I think when the Champions Trophy was played at that time, there was a lot of cricket on the surfaces here and they looked a little bit tired,” Morkel said.
“So again, tonight we’ll have a first look at the surface and I believe there’s quite a bit of a grass covering on the square. So we’ll have a good idea going into the first game in terms of what is sort of a better way to go, but in terms of planning at the moment, we’re covering all bases and then we’ll make a decision obviously on match day.”
Although he acknowledges how difficult it has been for Kuldeep Yadav to miss out on playing time in England, he believes the left-arm wrist spinner will excel in the upcoming games because of his skill.
“I think he’s a very professional athlete. His attitude since England, where he received hardly any game time, he’s still the guy that put the overs in,” Morkel said.
“And for me, Kuldeep, like I said, he’s bowled a lot of overs in his career. He knows what to do to get himself ready for T20 cricket, white-ball cricket. And like I said, we can control only what we can control now, and that is when we do train now and when we have our sessions, that it’s focused, that there’s a purpose behind it and we have goals.
“We set those goals out and from there, it’s up to them to go out and lead with the ball,” he concluded.
