Indian National Cricket Team a bowling coach Morne Morkel After his poor display with the bat in the first innings of the ongoing Test match against the New Zealand National Cricket Team, Rohit gave a strong message to Sharma & Co.
Morne Morkel was clearly disappointed with the batting show as they were bowled out for 156 in 45.3 at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune, India.
Indian batting is again underperforming
After bowling out the Black Caps for 259, India had an opportunity to strike on Day 1. They got off to an altogether poor start as skipper Rohit Sharma was once again dismissed by pacer Tim Southee.
At stumps, India went 16/1 in the 11th over and were under pressure. Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal started Day 2 on a decent note but returned to the hut after 30 runs each.
Virat Kohli had huge expectations on his shoulders but he too failed as he bowled 1 while facing a complete innings. Mitchell Santner.
Heroes of the last match, Rishabh pants (18) and Sarfaraz Khan (11) scored low and eventually the all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (38) and Washington Sundar (18) scored some crucial runs which helped India post a respectable total.
The Indians were particularly troubled by left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner, who smashed a career-best 7 for 53 to help New Zealand to a 103-run lead.
Must score first innings runs – Morne Morkel
Speaking at the press conference later in the day, Morne Morkel sent a strong message to the Indian batsmen to perform better in the second innings to compensate for the first innings failure.
“I never like to punch between the batsmen and the bowlers, but in Test match cricket you have to score first innings runs,” Morkel told the media during a press conference later in the day.
“If we raised our hands, we could not do it. We have world class players in our batting line-up. I know that individually they have their processes and they know how to deal with these things,” he said.
Hopefully we can iron out those mistakes because it’s costing us dearly at the moment – Morne Morkel
At stumps on Day 2, New Zealand were in total control with 301 runs. Morne Morkel, on the other hand, hopes that the experienced Indian batting order will perform well in the final innings of the match.
“Hopefully we can iron out those mistakes because it’s costing us right now – we can’t get a run on the board – but I’m sure there’s enough experience, enough knowledge between them to fix it,” he said.
“I support the team with a strong reaction in our second innings. “I was excited to see how they came back and how they played the situation and the conditions,” he said.
Describing cricket as a “funny game”, Morne Morkel further stated that they should support the players and keep their faith as they know the conditions very well and can pull off a miraculous victory.
“We have to believe. This game is a funny game. Our guys are attacking players, there are guys who know these conditions well. Before this game, we talked about the fact that we are masters in these conditions, we know how to conclude these conditions.”
