India may have taken a two-nil lead in the ongoing T20I series, but for Morne Morkel, the Indian bowling coach, the standards must go up from now on for the bowlers. While Morkel defended the bowlers, he admitted that certain decisions could have been wiser, and executed better. The visitors had kickstarted the series by chasing down 226 in the first T20I and then clinched a win off the penultimate ball in the second, in a chase of 181. “If you look at the par score with the previous venue [Christchurch], I think it’s about 180-190, if I understand correctly,” Morkel said. “I felt in game one, our execution in certain phases wasn’t as good as I would have liked it to be. With that also, certain balls, decision-making, I think in terms of options, wasn’t the right call. But again, that is us allowing those guys to understand and trust their gut feeling. And from there, we can have conversations. I must also say that it is a very good wicket, credit to the ground staff for preparing a very good surface. “If both teams score over 200, it’s a sign of a good wicket. Sometimes in a big venue, in a big field, you potentially can [take extra runs]. People always say, no, but the boundaries are big. But there are a lot more twos. If you look at New Zealand, they run very well between the wickets. Your space of what you can hit becomes bigger. So it is a big learning curve for all of us. In terms of us telling the guys what to do, it’s just maybe reflecting on those spells that they’ve bowled. At the end of the day, we can have all the plans, but it’s about our execution and how can we execute better. “As management staff, we can be slightly more lenient in that first couple of games with a travelling schedule, jet lag. One or two training sessions with the guys, we’re going to be slightly off. But from now on, we sort of said there’s no more excuses. We want our standards to go [up]. We slept enough. I think we sort of, in a way, found our feet a little bit. Hopefully from here, we can do those one percenters slightly better.” The two teams now head to Wellington for the third match of the series, which is set to be played on Tuesday. Morkel believes the players would need to get adjusted to the windy conditions to be able to put their best foot forward. “This is a different beast, this wind,” Morkel admitted, a day ahead of the contest. “I was in the hotel this morning and the whole building was sort of shaking. It’s going to be a new sort of thing that we add to our books for the guys to get used to and accustomed with, with a quick turnaround. But for us, it is about looking forward to that challenge and taking it head on and not really making excuses. “This wind can impact a lot of things. It can impact batting, your stance, it can impact you at the crease, it can impact many factors. But like I said, you’ve got a short little window where [from] a warm-up and a training, you can now try and get an understanding, how it’s going to affect you. When it comes to the game time, you have to block that out and really just try and execute every delivery and make every ball count.” Morkel has come to the defense of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has returned to international cricket with uninspiring returns in conditions where bowlers had limited support. The veteran seamer has conceded 99 runs in only eight overs this series, in return for a solitary wicket. As a word of advice, he has told Bhuvneshwar to ‘just be you’. “I’ve got a lot of sympathy for his return,” Morkel said. “The reason why I say that is, there will be expectation after four years to come out. He’s done exceptionally well in the IPL. He’s bowled really well. One is to block the expectation factor out. Two, leading into his selection, there was a month of cricket where he trained. But this is a different beast coming and playing international cricket where the margins are small. So he had to come in with limited training because of the schedule to get himself ready. “So the skill and his experience, everything is there. But at the end of the day, you have to respect the game of cricket and you have to be able to allow him to just find his feet in some of the games. The message from the start when he joined the squad is – don’t chase anything. Just be you. Yes, there will be expectations, but every game you’ll get better and every game you’ll find your rhythm. So let’s not think about any outside noises. Just be you and connect with that.”
