Morne Morkel on India Batting Aggressively: The Indian cricket team’s bowling coach Morne Morkel has said India’s ultra-aggressive batting effort in their first innings of the India vs Bangladesh Kanpur Test was pre-planned, considering that a lot of time had been taken out of the game, in a bid to force a result in their favor.
Only 35 overs of play was possible on day 1 of this Test and then two days were washed out. India needed to force a result in two days of play, which could also be affected by rain and bad light. They first bowled out Bangladesh for 233, their innings lasting 74.2 overs.
Then, India came out all guns blazing. Yashasvi Jaiswal cracked three fours in the first over, and Rohit Sharma blasted three sixes in the first five balls he faced to set the tone for India reaching 50 in only 3 overs. This is the fastest a team has ever reached the 50-run mark in Test cricket.
Although Rohit got out, Jaiswal, then Gill, Kohli, and KL Rahul batted aggressively from the onset of their knocks, a thing which they don’t always do in T20 cricket either. India scored 50 runs in 18 balls, 100 in 61, 200 in 148, and 250 in 183 balls—all of this is now a record in Test cricket for being fastest to these landmarks. India ended with a lead of 52 runs and then managed to take two Bangladeshi wickets before stumps. India’s batting effort has revived this Test, which earlier felt would head to a dull draw.
Our message this morning was to go for a win: Morne Morkel on India Batting Aggressively Against Bangladesh
India’s bowling coach Morne Morkel revealed that the coaching staff’s direction to the team was to chase a victory in whatever time was left in the game. Morkel said Bangladesh wouldn’t have expected the Indian batters to come at them this way.
“That was our message this morning [to go for a win]. With losing two days of the Test, how do we start this morning? To show that positive intent was going to be key. With two days left in the Test match and extended sessions, there’s still a lot of cricket and a lot of time left in the game,” Morkel said.
“The ways the boys went with the ball upfront was incredible to see. To show that intent with the bat was awesome. I don’t think, as a bowling unit, they expected that to happen. But it was always part of our game plan,” the former South African pacer added.
Morkel awed at Rohit’s ability to attack from the get-go. Rohit became only the fourth batsman in the history of Test cricket to hit the first two balls they faced for sixes, joining Foffie Williams, Sachin Tendulkar, and Umesh Yadav on this list.
Morkel said about Rohit, “We decided let’s see if we can take the game forward as fast as possible, and you need a leader from the front to do that. And Rohit has done it so many times for India and again today to go first ball, bang six, you know, on a surface where you think the bounce might be up and down, you’re not quite sure how the new ball is going to play, just to make his mark in that fashion.”
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