Bangladesh appoint Albie Morkel as power-hitting coach

Former South African all-rounder Albie Morkel has been appointed as power-hitting coach of the Bangladesh side for their upcoming tour of South Africa. This news has been confirmed by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) chairman Jalal Yunus.

Yunus stated that Morkel is an experienced cricketer and can help the Bangladesh batters as a coach. Morkel has reportedly already started his stint as well. A couple of weeks ago, Protean pace bowling icon Allan Donald was appointed as the pace bowling coach of the Bangladesh cricket team, and now Morkel will join his fellow South African in the Bangladesh coaching setup.

Bangladesh has lacked power-hitters in white-ball cricket

“He is a very experienced campaigner and we feel that our batters will be helped with his coaching,” said Yunus according to Cricbuzz. The reason why the Bangladesh cricket team has appointed Albie Morkel as a power-hitting coach is because of the fact that the side has been putting up poor performances in the limited-overs format. Also, this is the first time that the Bangladesh side has appointed somebody in the capacity of a power-hitting coach.

Albie Morkel brings a plethora of experience with him. The 40-year-old has represented the South African side in 58 ODIs and 50 T20I matches. The right-arm medium pacer also scalped 77 wickets in his international career. Apart from that, the South African also has a lot of experience of playing the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Morkel has played 91 matches in his IPL career and has scored close to 1000 runs at a frightening strike rate of 141.98. He has also taken a total of 85 wickets in T20 competition. Apart from the appointment of Morkel, the Bangladesh cricket team had also appointed Jamie Siddons as the batting coach of the side.

The Bangladesh cricket team will next be seen in action on the field when they take on South Africa in a three-match ODI series that is scheduled to commence on 18th March 2022.