Former South African fast bowler Morne Morkel has been named as the new bowling coach of the Indian Men’s senior cricket team.
As per the report, Morne Morkel will take over his role as Indian bowling coach on September 1, which means his first assignment with Team India will be the home Test against Bangladesh that starts from September 19.
The report further states that the news was confirmed by BCCI Secretary Jay Shah.
Right after BCCI appointed Gautam Gambhir as the new Indian head coach replacing Rahul Dravid, many changes are expected to be made in the Indian coaching unit.
Particularly for the next India bowling coach, many former Indian and International players including L Balaji, Zaheer Khan, and R Vinay Kumar names were rumoured
Notably, during the India tour of Sri Lanka 2024, the men in blue were without a full-time bowling coach. Sairaj Bahutule took over the role on a stand-in basis and worked with the bowlers. Morne Morkel was also rumoured to become the next India bowling coach in July.
In the middle of August, BCCI named Morne Morkel as the new Indian bowling coach while the former South African’s stint will start on September 1.
Gautam Gambhir and Morne Morkel have a very good relationship in cricket. Morkel played under Gambhir’s captaincy at the Kolkata Knight Riders(KKR) from IPL 2014 to 2016. He also played a crucial role by bagging 12 wickets in the 2014 edition of the IPL which KKR won.
Following his retirement, Morkel was roped in as bowling coach of Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in IPL 2022, the same team in which Gambhir joined as the mentor. Though Gambhir moved to KKR for the IPL 2024 season, Morkel remained with the LSG as their bowling coach.
His agreement with the Indian cricket team will relieve him of the IPL duties and LSG will have to find a new bowling coach for the next season.
Before Morne Morkel, another former KKR player joined the Indian coaching setup. Ryan ten Doeschate was named as the assistant coach for the Sri Lanka tour and is set to take up the job on a full-time basis.
