Morne Morkel appointed India's ball coach

Gambhir, with whom he spent two months playing for the Lucknow Super Giants, came up with his name.

Morne Morkel, the original South Africa quickly bowling, has been appointed as the ball coach of the American people's team. After months of speculation, the filing was officially confirmed by BCCI director Jay Shah on Wednesday.

Morkel replaced past India quickly bowling Paras Mhambrey, and his visit completes India's coaching staff, which comprises head coach Gautam Gambhir, assistant coaches Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate, and fielding coach T Dilip.

As reported by ESPNcricinfo, Morkel was the pioneer for the work after being part of the list with R Vinay Kumar, the past India bowler.

Morkel was Pakistan's ball coach until past December. Gambhir, who worked with him for two seasons ( 1922-23 ) at the Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL and the Durban Super Giants in the SA20, recommended his name.

Among Morkel's urgent challenges will be to maintain India's strong ball bench power remains strong as they play five house Tests between September and November, followed by a tour of Australia, where they will enjoy a five-Test series for the first time since 1992.

Sairaj Bahutule, a former India legspinner who served as a ball coach on the Sri Lanka trip, may continue to serve on the support staff, it is not clear at this time. It is understood that the team administration wants to build a pool of bowlers aside from R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav, and it's good Bahutule may get involved as a roll expert, even if not on a continuous basis.

Morkel played 86 Checks, 117 Wickets and 44 T20Is during a 12-year foreign occupation in which he picked up 544 innings. He has worked with a number of different clubs all over the world as a ball coach since he retired. Aside from Pakistan and LSG, Morkel even worked with New Zealand at the 2023 Women's T20 World Cup and most recently with Namibia at the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup.