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Morne Morkel has asked the Indian batting unit to step up after their recent run of poor performances to keep the New Zealand series alive.
India’s lack of runs in the first innings has been costing the side admitted the side’s bowling coach, Morne Morkel as they are at risk of suffering a defeat in the second Test against New Zealand in Pune.
The side led by Rohit Sharma has been poor with the bat in the ongoing series. From being all-out for a mere 46 runs in the previous Test and the 156 runs added in the ongoing game, India have failed to establish control against the Kiwis.
“I never like to have a punch up between batters and bowlers but, in Test match cricket you need to score the first innings runs,” Morkel told the media during the post-day press meet.
“If we put our hand up, we haven’t been able to do that. There are world-class players in our batting lineup. I know that individually, they’ve got their processes and they know how to go about those things,” he added.
As the game goes on, Morkel hopes that the batting unit can get their act together and complete a massive run chase despite tough conditions in Pune.
“Hopefully, we can iron those mistakes out because it’s costing us at the moment — not getting the runs on the board — but I’m pretty sure there’s enough experience, enough knowledge amongst them to rectify that,” he added.
Despite the poor start, Morkel has backed the Indian unit to come out with a stronger response and possibly complete the chase.
“I back the team (to come up) with a strong response in our second innings. I’m excited to see how they bounce back and how they play this situation and the conditions,” he said.
Morkel said India will have to maintain belief and back their knowledge of the conditions to avert losing the match and the series.
“We have to believe. This game is a funny game. Our guys are attacking players, there’s guys that know these conditions well. Our talk before this game was that we are masters in these conditions, we know how to sum these conditions up,” he said.
While the situation and conditions might not be in favour of the home side, Morkel sees it as a chance to possibly play an inspiring game of cricket with quality performances from the team.
(with PTI Inputs)