ICC T20 World Cup | India left-handers give bowlers sleepless nights: Morne Morkel

Ahmedabad: By design or by default, India have an assortment of left-handed riches in their squad for the ICC T20 World Cup. Nine members are left-handed batters, while six of them — all likely starters — are specialists in that role. Although each of them is a genuine match-winner, their natural guard has allowed rival teams to plan better.

When asked if this poses a handicap to the defending champions, bowling coach Morne Morkel begged to differ.

“That's been sort of the makeup of the team going into the World Cup that we were going to be heavy with left-handers. That's the way we've been set up at the moment. But if you look at the left-handers, they are aggressive players. Bowlers will have sleepless nights bowling to them,” said the South African before a practice session at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Friday ahead of the first Super Eights clash against his motherland.

“I do feel once we get going, we find that flow, we put bowlers under pressure. I’m sure they have been planning and will try to take the ball away from the left-handers. We have got enough skills with the guys to come up.”

Arriving for the tournament on the back of a rousing five-match series against New Zealand, where balls kept flying into the stands, the Indian batters have found the going tough on tacky pitches that have made shot-making difficult. While welcoming pitches that offer something for the bowlers, Morkel praised the batters for tactical awareness for choosing to keep wickets intact through cautious batting that allowed the finishers to go berserk at the death.

“I think the most important thing is to stick to plan A by taking the spinners on. I think the smart play is also to sum up the conditions and play with those moments quite well. To be honest, I think on those surfaces we've played so far, it wasn’t the easiest to get pace off the ball. We tried that in Mumbai, and found ourselves in trouble. The important thing is that we know if we have some sort of platform, we can get going. Credit to the team. Yes, we may not have dominated spin as much as we would have liked. The good thing is we are scoring well and getting close to 190s,” he said.

Come Sunday, Morne will be up against his elder brother Albie, who is working as South Africa's "specialist consultant" for this tournament. When asked if he’s had a chat with his sibling, both of whom have represented the Rainbow Nation with distinction, Morne said it’s purely business for him.

“No, we don't talk to each other. I think my mother, she is more worried than us. She doesn't know who to support, India or South Africa. I saw him arrive at the ground. But we haven't been talking a lot. Good to see him though,” he said.