India Star's "Attitude Since England" In Focus After Not Getting A Game In Asia Cup

Ahead of his side's Asia Cup opener against the UAE, Indian bowling coach Morne Morkel said that the decision on the number of spinners to be played will be taken after the wicket is seen. He also spoke about how great spinner Kuldeep Yadav has been, attitude-wise, despite missing out on playing chances during the Test tour of England. India will kickstart their Asia Cup campaign against the UAE in Dubai from Wednesday. India played the ICC Champions Trophy in Dubai, with spinners Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, and Varun Chakravarthy occupying many of the wickets and the spotlight. It will be interesting to see how many spinners India will play in their Asia Cup opener.

Speaking during the pre-tournament press conference, Morkel said about the bowling combination and whether India will play three or four spinners, "We need to go and look at the wicket. I think when the Champions Trophy was played at that time, there was a lot of cricket on the surfaces here and they looked a little bit tired."

"So again, tonight we will have a first look at the surface and I believe there is quite a bit of grass covering on the square. So we will have a good idea going into the first game in terms of what is sort of a better way to go, but in terms of planning at the moment, we're covering all bases, and then we will make a decision on match day," he added.

Speaking about Kuldeep, who bowled 32 overs in Central Zone's Duleep Trophy quarterfinal but went wicketless and also missed out on playing chances in England in favor of spin bowling all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, Morkel was full of praise for the spinner who has 69 wickets in 40 T20Is at an average of 14.07.

"I think he is a very professional athlete. His attitude since England, where he received hardly any game time, has been excellent—he is still the guy who puts the overs in. And for me, Kuldeep, like I said, has bowled a lot of overs in his career. He knows what to do to get himself ready for T20 cricket, white-ball cricket. And like I said, we can control only what we can control now, and that is when we train and have our sessions, that it is focused, that there is a purpose behind it, and we have goals. We set those goals out and from there, it is up to them to go out and lead with the ball," he concluded.

Kuldeep's last game in Indian colors was the Champions Trophy final back in March here in Dubai, where he took two wickets in the final and a total of seven wickets in five matches at an average of 31.85 and an economy rate of 4.79.

His last T20I for India was the T20 World Cup final last year in June, where he went wicketless for 45 runs in four overs. He took 10 wickets in five matches at an average of 13.90 in India's title-winning campaign.

Team India squad for Asia Cup: Surya Kumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson (WK), Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh.

Reserve players: Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Yashasvi Jaiswal.

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