A final call on Shubman Gill's availability for the opening Test against Australia will be taken on the morning of the match, India's bowling coach Morne Morkel said on Wednesday, adding that uncapped batting all-rounder Nitish Reddy will be the one to keep an eye on.
Gill remains doubtful for the series-opener, starting here Friday, at the Optus Stadium after copping a blow to his left thumb during India's intra-squad training match here a few days ago.
Morkel said Gill is on the mend as the visitors look to fight fire given that they will be without regular skipper Rohit Sharma for the first game.
"Shubman is improving with each passing day. He took a nasty blow in that squad game. It's going to be a day-to-day process with him," Morkel said ahead of a training session with reporters.
"Fingers crossed for that improvement. They'll wait to make a call with him up until the morning of the Test match," he added.
Morkel said Reddy will be one to watch out for in the series given his all-round skills. "He's one of the young guys that we've mentioned here that has got that batting all-round ability. He'll be a guy that can hold the one end up first. (With the ball) he hits the bat a little bit harder than you think," he said.
"On these sort of conditions, where there might be a little bit of seam movement up front, especially the first couple of days, he'll be a handy bowler, a very accurate wicket-to-wicket style of bowler."
"It's a great chance for him to fill that all-rounder slot. Any team in the world always want that all-rounder that can share that burden off your fast bowlers just to give them some extra breathing space."
Morkel said Jasprit Bumrah will have to play the role of the leader among bowlers as India would not want to rush Mohammed Shami back into the mix.
"Jassi is a guy that immediately put his hand up and he wanted that leadership role. He's been very successful here in the past. He's a guy that I know, with the ball in hand, will lead from the front and the rest of the younger guys will follow."
"We're definitely keeping a close eye on Shami. But we need to understand that he's been out of the game for almost a year. We also need to respect him and respect his body as well," Morkel said.
"For us, it's a massive win that he's back playing. It was a great win for him picking up wickets in that first game."
So how can we give him the best support? How can we give him the best opportunity to find his way back into the team? It's going to be by being patient and giving his body time to find its feet again."
Morkel admitted India are under pressure coming into this series but at the same time pointed at the opportunities that are on offer.
"A lot of people would see how we go about our business here. But our key message is that it is important for us to put that aside. For any cricketer, when you come to Australia, you want to do well. This is where you make a name for yourself — on one of the biggest stages in the world to play cricket."
"To come up here and play good, solid cricket, score 500-600 runs in a series (or) take wickets (and) that puts yourself on a stage. It's a fantastic carrot to dangle in front of Indian players," he added.
The Indian batsmen would have to then seek their own ways of scoring over the five Tests here, but in these times so much information and statistics make it harder for players," Morkel said.
"Partnerships are going to be critical, shielding the partnership, seeing over the new ball. Once the ball is softer, one doesn't want to give it away, soft wicket. When we talk of those sort of blueprints, that's what we identify as areas that we can post a score on the board.".
"As a batting unit, there's been a lot of conversation on how they're going to go about finding a blueprint to put runs on the board."
Morkel said fighting it out during tough passages of play will also be crucial.
"When I was playing back in the day, I found that if you can fight through tough periods and not give it away softly, at the end of the day, that is sort of the way you want to play your brand of cricket," he said.
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