Make Him Think: Morne Morkel Reveals How India Are Nurturing Sooryavanshi

LUCKNOW-India bowling coach Morne Morkel believes young opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi can make significant strides simply by being around an experienced Indian dressing room, urging the teenager to observe, ask questions and absorb the habits of established players.

Morkel believes Sooryavanshi’s development should not be judged only by the amount of game time he gets. The 14-year-old is already benefiting from being around senior players and watching how they prepare and respond to different situations.

“Yeah, I mean, we all know the talent of Vaibhav. I think the more time he spends in this environment with the quality players, the more time he trains at this standard, will only be great for his cricket. And if he’s not getting that game time, he’s still on a bus, in the dugout, in the hotel with guys with a lot of experience. And I think with him sharing that sort of dressing room and talking to guys, or just actually watching how the guys go through their processes and how they set up innings, will be key for him,” Morkel said.

“I’m a big believer that sometimes, if you put guys in the right environment and they can ask the right questions and they can observe. So I always challenge them; I say, watch what this guy is doing in training, how does he face his first 15 balls? When the wicket is doing stuff, what sort of game plan does he come up with? And for any young player, if he gets game time or if that game time is a little limited, it’s still our job to make sure that these guys learn, they grow, and they ask questions.”

Morkel said he also encourages the young batter to reflect on what he has learnt from each training session.

“I think that for me is a fantastic growth sort of mind map. I mean, I’m a fast bowler; I can’t really talk too much about batting, but I always ask him on the bus, ‘What’s one thing you’ve learned today? Tell me, what did you think about that guy’s batting? And that makes him think. And I think next time when he comes to nets, those sorts of things he’ll observe; he’ll adapt his game accordingly,” he added.  (IANS)