While India will be used to the weather and the possibility of turn on the wicket, one big difference from their home encounters would be the switch from their usual SG ball to the Kookaburra ball.
Morkel explained how India’s pace contingent – led by Mohammed Siraj, and featuring the likes of Prasidh Krishna, Auqib Nabi and Gurnoor Brar – would look to manage with the Kookaburra on the Sri Lankan pitches.
“The biggest challenge coming to Sri Lanka is the heat, the humidity, and the Kookaburra ball going soft a little earlier.
“Once it goes a little softer, how can we stack up the overs to keep up the intensity and pressure. The ball will go softer after 20-35 overs, I always expect that.”
Back when he was a player, Morkel was the architect of a famous win, picking seven wickets in 2014, that eventually helped South Africa win the series.
Morkel knew the exact permutations and combinations that were needed to get going as a pacer in Sri Lanka.
“We had quite a bit of shower this morning. And if the ball gets softer, it will become that much longer for the ball to reverse (swing).
“In these conditions, its all about your mindset, if you are a fast bowler, if you’re going to bowl the shorter spells, the energy you put in the ball and putting it into good areas: you’ll always have opportunity.
“But even in our playing days, if you hit the good length, you always stood a chance of picking up the result.”
For Morkel, quick assessment of conditions and practical application of that reading could be the key.
“But then how, what is our next step, and to be, street smart in terms of how we’re going to use the crease, how we’re going to use our short ball, all those conditions and all those sort of situations, we need to be able to sum up quite quickly.”
