MANCHESTER: Even India bowling coach Morne Morkel, former South Africa pacer, is trying to comprehend what went wrong as far as dipping pace of India's speedsters especially debutant Anshul Kamboj is concerned. After a forgettable Day 2, India bowlers struggled for wickets on Friday as England reached 544/7 at stumps with Joe Root scoring a 150 and climbing three spots to become second leading scorer in Test history behind Sachin Tendulkar.
"And that's something that we're definitely also trying to get our heads around. On a surface where it gets a little bit flat, you need a little bit of energy behind the ball. I think that's definitely one of the factors for us so far in our bowling innings. It's just getting that little bit of zip off the wicket to create the opportunities we've got behind LBW," Morkel said after the third day's play here at the Old Trafford Ground.
Speaking on Kamboj, the South African said, "To look at the workloads of guys like (Mohammed) Siraj and those guys, they've had heavy workloads. I'm sure that's his first Test match so far. It's important for us that we want to grow and develop a nice fast bowling unit. So not too much to judge on that. But yeah, I think it is also a heavier outfield. But in terms of commitment and effort that the guys have put in, I don't think we can fault that. You need that little bit of energy on the ball on good surfaces where the ball at times is not doing as much."
He was also asked about the thought process behind picking Kamboj, why Shardul Thakur under bowled and Washington Sundar introduced so late in the bowling attack. "So the discussion going into the Test match was somebody, a bowler that can bowl volume, one of the guys that can bowl overs, somebody that can ask questions at the stump, off stump, an accurate sort of bowler. And I think Anshul on a domestic level has done that. He's done really well on the India A tour. And he was a guy whose name has been in the mix for a long time. And they gave him the opportunity for that. Shardul, yeah, it's a bit of a tough one. When you have four seamers, when you're going at five runs and over, I think there's a gap in your mindset. You want to bring strike bowlers back to try and take the wickets for you. And unfortunately it happened for Shardul in that first Test match as well. But not to say that he's the fourth seamer, but he is playing as the fourth seamer. And for me, ideally, a fourth seamer will potentially bowl 15 to 10, 15 overs a day. Where you're looking to have the bulk of the bowlers done by a strike bowler. And, you know, yeah, I just think at times we were trying to strike more, bringing back the guys we picked to do that job. And it went for them. For Washi, I think that Shubman was just, you know, he made the call in there to stick a little bit longer with the seam options. And I think when he got the opportunity today with the ball in hand, Washi did a great job for us."
Morkel was also asked about Bumrah and why he is not picking up wickets with the new ball. He said Bumrah needs support from the other end to be effective. "I had a conversation with Bumrah last night and he's obviously a guy that's highly skilful. He wants to make and create things fast with the ball, but at the end of the day we need support from the other end as well. And I think that is a big thing in this sort of bowling innings, is that we're struggling to create, we're finding it hard to create pressure from both ends. You know, for him to be successful, we need to build a partnership. So the other guys need to help him out. And I think at times, you know, the guys are also trying, from other ends trying, it's a little bit greedy, trying to strive too much and we leak and, you know, you sort of release that pressure. But, yeah, I can't, you can't say anything about Bumrah, he's number one in the world, he's skillful. And, you know, at times you're going to get in the wicket column, but I think also, you know, you need help from other ends."
Speaking on his workload and Kamboj's not so impressive debut so far, the bowling coach said, "Coming with Booms, I mean, obviously the idea, I think, for him is to, the ideal way we see it is to give him shorter bursts, short starts. You know, he's the strike bowler, like we always said. But also, there will be moments that you need to push a guy a little bit harder and longer to get the breakthrough. You know, England, they've got a powerful batting line-up. As a batter, your initial first 20 balls is very crucial. And, you know, in terms of a guy who's accurate and asking those questions, he's Boomer. So, he's going to be asked a lot of times to come in and do the job for us. I think, you know, as the spearhead of the attack, that's also a responsibility that he's not shying away from. He wants that to make the impact. So, that's good. Yeah, like I said, also, at times today, we lacked that little bit of energy on the ball. And that was maybe for the reasons where we wanted to push Sarraj and Booms a little bit more because they had a little bit quicker airspeed and off the wicket a little bit to try and create those opportunities. And then with Anshul, you know, that's international cricket. Unfortunately, there's no play style. And we know we support him as best as we can. But it's also for him, it's good learning. And I think everybody in the dressing room is constantly telling him to keep going and supporting him. And that's part of his journey now in international cricket is to get a taste for it and know moving forward what he needs to do to play at this level. So, you know, it's through good conversations and just keep on supporting him."
He said the team management is trying to find a place for spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who so far has not played a single game in the series, but in their quest for batting depth that has not been possible so far. "I think it's finding when he comes in, how can we find balance and how can we get that batting line-up to be a little bit longer and stronger. We've seen in the past that we've lost a lot of wickets and Kuldeep is world-class and he's bowling really well at the moment. So we're trying our best to find ways for him to get in. But unfortunately with that, just the balance with the batting throws it out a little bit."
Morkel said the five-match series is a real test for fast bowlers and getting them ready for it straight after the IPL is an issue. "It's a real test. We play three, two Test match series a lot and this is now our first time in a while where we've come to five. It shouldn't be an excuse, but in terms of condition, getting our guys conditioned and getting them ready for five Test match series coming straight out of the IPL is sometimes an issue because you have to balance between Test matches, getting these guys a good amount of recovery time but also to keep their bowling loads up. And that's why it's important for us to look at the future and get a good core of five, six bowlers that we can rotate and these guys can come in and they can do the job. At the moment, there's not a lot of experience with the ball. We've got Siraj, we've got Booms that played a handful of tests and then Akash has played a little bit but he's out injured. So we keep on finding ways to bring new guys in that's learning now their international cricket, learning their trade in international cricket. So it is not easy at the moment, but this is just a phase, a period that we need now to work through and get these guys fitter and stronger to last for the five test matches. Hi Mane, I just want to get your thoughts on how you think about sequencing these four bowlers that you have."
He praised Root and said it's difficult to get him out if the plans are not executed to perfection. "There's not a lot of weaknesses in his game, that's why he's scored 13,000-plus runs. But yeah, I think the main thing is, at the time, if you can't execute well, it looks like there's no plan at all. And I think that's a time where we've left ourselves, where it's just on execution. We leak runs, and then all of a sudden, going at fives, and how do you pull the game back a little bit? And also still have that aggressive mindset. And that will come from individuals working out, OK, we're going at fives, how can we get the run rate to 3.5? It's a patient line, it's bowling in partnerships. And there are some of the plans, but can we execute that for a longer period of time at the moment? We were fantastic in the last two Test matches, but we had a bad day yesterday, we were on the back foot. We had all the plans, but at the end of the day, you can have a plan, but it is executing those plans for a longer period of time. Otherwise, yeah, it's a fast-scoring ground, and if the brand of cricket England is playing, you're always going to try and catch up in the game."
Probed further on Kamboj's speed, Morkel said, "If you look, I wish I could give you that answer, because I would have told him then how to bowl quicker, but he arrived here, he bowled well in the nets, and then obviously we went with what I discussed earlier. Why are speeds so low? I mean, yeah, that is something that we're working on. But he was definitely quicker when you saw him at the India A games. Yeah, again, he was definitely quicker, and in some of the games back home, he was definitely higher."
Morkel cleared doubts on fitness of Siraj and Bumrah and said both are okay. "Unfortunately when we took the second new ball, Bumrah rolled his ankles going down the stairs. Siraj also, I think, rolled his foot in one of the footholds. But they seemed to be okay."