Morne Morkel opens up on bowling combination ahead of Asia Cup, says final call will be taken on match day

India’s bowling coach Morne Morkel believes the pitches in Dubai for the Asia Cup will be different to the ones they played on in the Champions Trophy. During the Champions Trophy, the tracks had helped the spinners and India’s decision to pick five spinners in the squad had paid rich dividends.

During February-March, the UAE pitches were tired as a lot of cricket was played on them.

However, for the Asia Cup, the former South African lanky pacer said the pitches are more fresh and green. Morkel said they will take a call on the bowling combination on the match day.

“Again, we need to go and look at the wicket. I think when the Champions Trophy was played at that time, there was a lot of cricket on the surfaces here and they looked a little bit tired,” Morkel said while speaking to the media on Monday.

“So again, tonight we will have a first look at the surface and I believe there is quite a bit of grass covering on the square. So we will have a good idea going into the first game in terms of what is sort of a better way to go, but in terms of planning at the moment, we are covering all bases and then we will make a decision on match day,” Morkel added.

India would start the Asia Cup as red-hot favorites and Suryakumar Yadav’s would look to come up with a collective effort. The Men in Blue will begin their Asia Cup campaign against the UAE on September 10 in Dubai.

India Squad for Asia Cup: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah.