India’s bowling coach Morne Morkel has urged the team’s seamers to adapt quickly to Sri Lanka’s heat, humidity and the changing nature of the Kookaburra ball, stressing that maintaining intensity and finding creative ways to generate pressure will be crucial in the two-Test series which will commence on Saturday.
In these conditions, it’s all about your mindset. “As the Test match will go on, hopefully there will be a little bit of uneven bounce. Because we haven’t played a lot of red-ball cricket in the last couple of months; going back into that is going to be a challenge as well,” he said, it’s about how we can stack up overs together with intensity and create that pressure.
It will go soft after 25 or 30 overs, so we have to expect that.
If you’re a fast bowler, if you’re going to bowl the shortest spells, the energy you put into the ball and putting it into good areas — you’ll always have opportunity,” Morkel said, as quoted by Cricinfo. “Even in our playing days, I thought if you hit the deck hard here, you are asking lots of questions on a good length, you’re always in the chance of picking up results,” Morkel said.
“Our skill is there, and the planning will be there, but the biggest challenge coming to Sri Lanka is the heat, the humidity, and the Kookaburra ball going soft a little earlier.
