India At Asia Cup 2025: Morne Morkel Backs This All-Rounder To Bowl Four Overs

As India aim to find the perfect combination heading into the 2025 Asia Cup, bowling coach Morne Morkel has said all-rounders need to excel at both batting and bowling. The former South Africa pacer said that someone like four overs from someone like Shivam Dube is important for the team and the management views all-rounders with the same lens.

Under head coach Gautam Gambhir, India seem to be heading towards the strategy of picking more all-rounders in the side. Morkel too highlighted that the management is "leaving no stone unturned" to make all-rounders do well in both skills.

"For me, it's always important to see a guy like Shivam that can bowl four overs," Morkel told Indian mediapersons on the sidelines of the team's net session at the ICC Academy.

"I'm always pushing for all-rounders to work hard on both skills. Sometimes guys can get a little bit naughty in practice and focus just on one. Here in this environment, we want to leave no stone unturned," the former Proteas fast bowler said.

"On the day, we're going to need somebody to do the work for us. Conditions might favour him more than somebody else. For us, it's about being professional.

"It's about taking responsibility of putting quality work in there on the day when you're called upon by Surya to do the job. You’ve to be ready to do that."

Conditions In Dubai

Morkel also said that the pitch in Dubai at this time of the year will be different from February when India played their Champions Trophy matches at this ground.

"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.

India went in with four spinners in Champions Trophy matches-- Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja -- and emerged as champions.

"So again, tonight we'll have a first look at the surface and I believe there's quite a bit of a grass covering on the square. So we'll 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're covering all bases and then we'll make a decision obviously on match day."

Morkel Praises Kuldeep

Morkel also praised Kuldeep Yadav's professionalism after the wrist-spinner could not break into the Indian Test side in England.

"I think he's a very professional athlete. His attitude since England, where he received hardly any game time, he's still the guy that put the overs in," Morkel said.

The bowling coach backed Kuldeep to do well in T20 format.

"And for me, Kuldeep, like I said, he's bowled a lot of overs in his career. He knows what to do to get himself ready for T20 cricket, white-ball cricket. And like I said, we can control only what we can control now, and that is when we do train now and when we have our sessions, that it's focused, that there's a purpose behind it and we have goals.

"We set those goals out and from there, it's up to them to go out and lead with the ball," he concluded.

(With PTI Inputs)