Asia Cup 2025: Morne Morkel heaps praise on Kuldeep Yadav ahead of continental event

Kuldeep Yadav. Pic/AFP

Ahead of the Asia Cup 2025, Team India's bowling coach Morne Morkel has heaped praise on Kuldeep Yadav by saying that he is very professional and knows what to do to get himself ready for the T20 format.

"I think he's a very professional athlete. His attitude since England, where he received hardly any game time, he's still the guy that put the overs in. For me, Kuldeep has bowled a lot of overs in his career. He knows what to do to get himself ready for T20 and white-ball cricket," said Morkel in a press conference on the sidelines of India's practice session.

He further revealed Team India's management plans for the bowlers and how they are supposed to work with the ball.

"Like I said, we can control only what we can control now and that is when we do train now and when we have our sessions, that it's focused, there's a purpose behind it and we have goals. We set those goals out and from there it's up to them to go out and lead with the ball," said the former South Africa's pacer.

The bowling coach also said that after assessing the pitch, the final XI for the Asia Cup 2025 opener for India will be decided.

"Again, 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's quite a bit of a grass covering on the square. So we'll have a good idea going into after 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'll make the decision obviously on match day," he said.

The Asia Cup 2025 is all set to kick off on September 9, with the first match scheduled to be played between Afghanistan and Hong Kong at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium. The "Men in Blue" will begin their campaign with a game against the UAE on September 10 at the Dubai International Stadium.

(With IANS Inputs)