Morne Morkel, the consummate professional, faces a baptism of fire

Not long after he linked up with the Indian Test team in Chennai in September, Morne Morkel was clear what his primary objective was – to ‘protect the set-up that operates by itself.’ Two months into his role as bowling coach of the national side, the former South African pacer’s first serious challenge looms immediately ahead of him.

Morkel has taken over from Paras Mhambrey, who inherited a gun pace attack from Bharat Arun when he came on board as part of head coach Rahul Dravid’s coaching group in November 2021. Arun was the architect of India’s piecing together of a terrific fast-bowling unit spearheaded by Jasprit Bumrah, propped up Mohammed Shami and supplemented by Mohammed Siraj, who made a stirring debut on India’s last tour of Australia in 2020-21.

Siraj stayed back in Australia despite the demise of his father in Hyderabad early in the tour at the exhortations of head coach Ravi Shastri. Those were Covid-hit times and had the young man flown back home, he stood to miss plenty of cricket, given the quarantine rules as they existed at the time. Despite the massive personal tragedy, Siraj stood tall with his deeds, inspiring the inexperienced group in the final Test in Brisbane which India went into with remarkably little taste of Test cricket within the bowling band, courtesy a slew of unfortunate injuries.

India are now in Australia for a third time in six years, for their first five-Test series down under since 1991-92, seeking an unprecedented third successive series triumph in a land where they hadn’t won a series for 71 years until their 2018-19 tour. The India-Australia rivalry has spiced up over the years and the fact that India have been able to not just hold their own in Australia but also vanquish them twice in a row has leant an added edge to the forthcoming contests.

But this series will be played against the backdrop of a humiliating 0-3 drubbing at home to New Zealand, the worst possible outcome going into a showdown of monumental proportions. The task ahead of the think-tank is humongous; until Rohit Sharma rejoins the team, potentially in time for the second Test in Adelaide from December 6, designated vice-captain Bumrah will be in charge. Head coach Gautam Gambhir and Morkel, among others, must ensure that Bumrah handles the twin responsibilities of lead bowler and stand-in skipper without too much stress, because while Bumrah the captain might be expendable, Bumrah the pace ace most certainly isn’t.

Morkel has a very promising bunch of quicks to work with over the next two months, but not many of them have had much taste of international cricket, let alone the five-day game. Shami’s comeback from heel surgery has hit several roadblocks in the last few months and at this stage, it seems as if he will, at best, play a marginal part in Australia. His last competitive fixture was nearly a year back, in the 50-over World Cup final, and as his recovery and rehab has progressed, he has picked up unrelated injuries that have prevented him from sticking to the projected timeline for his return to play.

Severely handicapped

Without Shami, India are severely handicapped, it goes without saying. Tempting as it might be to hark back to early 2021 when India stormed the Gabbatoir by consigning Australia to their first defeat in Brisbane in 32 years with a bowling attack that read Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini and the two Tamil Nadu debutants, T. Natarajan and Washington Sundar, one must guard against expecting miracles all the time. That’s why the added responsibility on the shoulders of Bumrah, easily the best all-format bowler in the world currently who will be on his third Test tour of Australia, and Siraj, who has only sparkled sporadically since those heady days of his debut series in 2020-21.

Apart from these two pedigreed names, India’s pace attack comprises Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana and all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy. Deep has played five Tests, all this year and all in India, which have fetched him 10 wickets. Prasidh made a debut to forget in Centurion last December, going for 93 runs in his 20 overs in helpful conditions, and was sparingly used in his only other appearance, in Cape Town in January when India won by seven wickets on a veritable minefield. Rana has yet to represent the country in any format, Nitish has three Twenty20 International appearances. To say that Morkel has his work cut out will be an understatement.

The ’set-up that operates by itself’ isn’t quite that anymore. Shami’s unavailability is a big blow not only because of his expertise but also because of his familiarity with Australian conditions. For those who haven’t played there previously, the demands are manifold, primary among them being length. Australian pitches offer considerably more bounce than most tracks in India, which means the length must be a little fuller to bring the stumps – and therefore bowleds and leg befores – into play but not full enough to offer up buffet balls that Australia’s attack-minded top order will invariably lay into.

‘Australian length’

On the face of it, an adjustment in length might seem easy enough, but those who have been there and done that will tell you that it’s anything but straightforward. Bowlers who have honed their craft in India must battle muscle memory and consciously stick to the ‘Australian length’ while being also mindful of which batter they are bowling to. Morkel’s biggest task over the next 10 days leading into the first Test in Perth starting on November 22 will be to ensure that the largely greenhorn quartet behind Bumrah and Siraj understands the significance of bowling the right length and then starts to put that into practice at nets on a consistent basis.

Morkel has been on two tours of Australia with the South African national team with decent success – 23 wickets from six Tests, though both his average and strike-rate in Australia aren’t as good as his corresponding career numbers. He operated alongside the magical Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini, Jacques Kallis and the skilled Vernon Philander, and brought a dynamic that no one else did in his side – release from a great height. Morkel stands at 1.96 metres (six feet four inches) and therefore was able to generate disconcerting bounce from a goodish length. He was also regularly in the 140-plus kmph bracket, which made him more than a handful.

As bowling coach, Morkel doesn’t have players with these attributes to work with, but he has seen several of them closely in various capacities and is aware of the immense skills the Indian fast bowlers possess. He will have taken heart from Prasidh’s performances for India ‘A’ in the two-match series against Australia ‘A’ which concluded on Saturday. Even though Ruturaj Gaikwad’s side was well beaten in both games, Prasidh picked up 10 wickets and might have made a strong case for his inclusion as a third seamer if India seek to lengthen their batting by including both spinning all-rounders, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, in the playing XI in Perth. Without drawing parallels, there are shades of Morkel to Prasidh and if the South African can get his Indian ward to channelise his inner Morkel, there will be some relief for Bumrah and Siraj.

India’s pace attack hasn’t looked this thin on experience since their last Test tour of Australia, which can be an unforgiving place for overseas quicks who might have the propensity to get carried away by the pace and bounce pitches there offer. Apart from working on the skills and adaptability of this group, Morkel must also draw from his own tilts at Australia to ensure that the younger crop maintains mental equilibrium. More than most sports, cricket is played as much between the ears as on the field; clarity of thought and consistency in execution go hand in glove and that’s the messaging that will flow from the new bowling coach to the wards that will understandably look up to him for guidance, wisdom and inputs.

Excellent reputation

Morkel comes with an excellent reputation as bowling coach and was an automatic choice for that role once Gambhir succeeded Dravid as India’s head coach. To say that he didn’t have much of an opportunity to showcase his cricketing intelligence during the five Tests at home will be no exaggeration; just because he was a pacer doesn’t preclude inputs to spinners. But there is no denying that he will have a more significant and influential part in Australia over the next nine weeks and in England next summer, where India will again be seriously examined during another five-Test faceoff.

Coaching can be both rewarding and frustrating. If well-laid plans come to fruition, then the delight at having plotted the opposition’s downfall from the changing room is immense. But if those plans don’t find resonance in execution, the helplessness at not being able to take matters into one’s own hands can be equally dispiriting. Perth and the pink-ball Test in Adelaide will provide an immediate window to which of these opposite ends of the emotion spectrum Morkel and, by extension, India will experience. Time hasn’t been the Protean’s biggest ally – he has only been in the job two months – and the lead-up to India’s most crucial Test series in a long time has been anything but ideal. The consummate professional that he is, Morkel won’t dwell on these as much as on the task at hand, which is to get the bowling ground fighting fit and chomping at the bit, come Perth and November 22.