Shamik Chakrabarty at Eden Gardens
India’s bowling coach Morne Morkel came for the press conference at the end of the second day’s play of the first Test between India and South Africa here at Eden Gardens, and from Shubman Gill’s injury to the pitch, he touched upon many subjects. Excerpts…
On Gill’s injury
I think we first need to determine how he got neck stiffness, maybe just a bad night’s sleep. I don’t think we can put it down to the load. Shubman is a very fit guy, he looks after himself very well, so it’s just unfortunate this morning that he woke up with a stiff neck and that carried him into the day, which was crucial for us. Another sort of partnership with him batting around was going to be needed for us at the time and, you know, just bad timing.
On Washington Sundar at No. 3
I think he did really well. I mean, Washington has been brilliant for us with the bat every time he got the opportunity, and what a nice sort of opportunity for him in this game to go at three and use him while he is in good form at the moment and hitting the ball well. I think, also with that, it allows us certain options lower down in the order. So yeah, I thought it was a brave call to make but, you know, also a quality player that’s playing good cricket at the moment, so why not give him that opportunity?
For More Exciting Articles: Follow RevSportz
On Eden pitch
I mean, to be honest with you, even we didn’t expect the wicket to deteriorate so quickly. Looking at it the day before the game, even the morning of the game, I thought – we all thought – when we watched that first couple of hours that it was a good wicket. So it did deteriorate quite quickly, which was unexpected. But I think that’s the beauty sometimes of playing in the subcontinent, that you need to be able to adapt and you need to be able to react to conditions quite quickly and that’s a sort of challenge that we are facing here at the moment. So in terms of surfaces, you know, obviously we want to play to our strengths.
On the batting template on this pitch
It’s going to be up to the individual, how they want to play. I don’t think there’s a set format where you can look to just survive. I think you need to try and transfer a bit of pressure onto the bowler, look to rotate strike, look to be busy at the crease. I think it’s up to the individual what they feel comfortable with in terms of how they can score runs. The key for us is to form partnerships and to protect that partnership because it’s tough for the new batter to start.
On whether a four-pronged spin attack is going to be India’s preference going ahead on similar kind of pitches
We will take it game by game. Pick the best XI that we feel can get the win for India. We are not going to look too far ahead. We are just going to focus now on playing this game as well as possible. Take the learning from that, arrive in Guwahati and see what we get there.
Also Read: Pitch imperfect: India stay ahead on 15-wicket day