The wicket looked a bit dry – Morne Morkel on India’s batting in the series opener against England

Rain interrupted the first T20I between India and England in Chester-le-Street after India’s innings. Batting first, the visitors totted up 189/7 at the end of 20 overs. India were jolted to a rude awakening when they lost Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan early in the innings. But they recovered well and riding high on knocks from Shreyas Iyer, Abhishek Sharma and Shivam Dube, they were able to put up a significant number on the board.

Talking at the pre-match press conference, India’s bowling coach, Morne Morkel opened up on the score and how it looked good enough until the rain came knocking. However, the Indian bowling coach had enough faith in his bowlers despite the precariousness of the chase that was to follow with too many variables on the line.

Reflecting on the surface and the total, Morkel said, “To be honest with you, I thought, on the eye the wicket looked a bit dry. And also the feedback that we got, the wicket was a little bit two-paced and stodgy. The only thing, was then later, while we were batting our batting innings, I was slightly concerned and nervous about was the fact with the rain, is the ball going to skid on?”

He further added, “But if, I reckon if conditions stayed dry, the way we set up our bowling plans and attack in terms of the way we wanted to go about it, would have suited the venue quite well. I mean, there's big square boundaries, you know, there is also a wind, plus the surface is quite dry. So it's one of those never-know sort of situations. But, you know, I would definitely like to think that, you know, the quality we have had in our bowling department, we could have been that on that surface there.”