India’s first-innings frailties are hurting the team, said bowling coach Morne Morkel after the second day’s play in the Pune Test against New Zealand.
India were bundled out for an embarrassing 46 in the first innings of the opening Test, and now, in the second game, they were shot out for 156 on Friday. India lost the first Test and are staring down the barrel in the ongoing match. A defeat in Pune would mean a first home Test series loss since 2012-13.
“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 said at the media conference.
“If we put our hand up, we haven’t been able to do that. There are world-class players in our batting line-up. I know that individually, they’ve got their processes and they know how to go about those things.
“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 amongst them to rectify that. I back the team (to come up) with a strong response in our second innings,” the former South African pacer said.
Though it seems an uphill task for the hosts at the moment, Morkel thinks
that self-belief can help India fight back.
“We have to believe. This is a funny game. Our guys are attacking players, there are 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. Let’s be honest, it’s going to be a tough task. But what an opportunity for somebody to really inspire and put in a fighting and a top performance — that’s the way I see it.
“When conditions are tricky, you’ll see real people stand up and fight. And if we show that fight and somebody gets the momentum going in these conditions, you never know,” he said.
Morkel also had words of praise for New Zealand. “I think they (New Zealand) bowled very well in partnership... The way they’ve adapted to conditions, it’s been incredible so far in this series.”
