Morne Morkel, the retired South African pace bowler, will be their new coach as a bowling coach under Gautam Gambhir. This is according to Cricbuzz who reported that his tenure will kick-start with the home series against Bangladesh in September.
This appointment has been made at this critical moment in time when India is preparing for its three-match ODI series with Sri Lanka under head coach Gautam Gambhir.
Rohit Sharma’s led ODI team key players have already arrived in Colombo to commence their campaign.
Sharma has returned from USA to Sri Lanka together with Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Kuldeep Yadav and the recently included Harshit Rana.
These players are said to have taken residence at ITC Ratnadipa hotel and a net session at the stadium is scheduled for them today which will be monitored by assistant coach Abhishek Nayar.
The rest of the squad will join up with the ODI team after conclusion of T20I series against Sri Lanka in Pallekele on July 30 where India have already clinched an unbeatable 2-0 lead so far.
Starting on August 2 at R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium in Colombo, ODI series will run until August 4 and 7 respectively.
According to this report, Morkel’s inclusion into coaching staff is also part of a continuous assessment exercise by Gambhir and his management to improve its coaching architecture before future competitions.
However, this tactical move may put question marks over Sairaj Bahutule’s position if Morne Morkel deals specifically with fast bowling.
There are also speculations whether a separate spin bowling coach would still exist along Morkel or not pending on any decision yet taken on this matter.
Should Bahutule be retained as an interim bowling coach; then we would be having two assistant coaches; Abhishek Nayar as well as Ryan ten Doeschate, a bowling coach, Morne Morkel, fielding coach T Dilip and possibly a spin bowling coach under head coach Gambhir.
