I am committed to the Proteas: Morne Morkel

Fast bowler Morne Morkel was one of the bright spots in the otherwise dull tour of England, where South Africa lost in all the formats of the game to the Three Lions. The Proteas lost the Test series 3-1 and it turned out to be pretty disastrous but one man who stood out in the series was Morne Morkel. The pacer picked up 19 wickets in the series at an average of 26.36.  Apart from the numbers, Morkel also beat the bat on a number of occasions.

Dale Steyn was out with an injury, Kagiso Rabada was suspended from the 2nd Test match and Vernon Philander was down with an illness. South Africa needed a reliable workhorse and it turned out to be Morkel. Skipper Faf du Plessis had also said that he hasn’t seen Morkel bowl this well in the recent past. Morkel also said that he is committed to his team.

Taking encouragement from the performance

“I’m committed to the Proteas and for me that’s the most important thing,” the 32-year-old said at the Proteas team arrival in Cape Town on Thursday. “We’re in a bit of a slump now and it’s important for our senior players to stick together and help the team get back to a place where the public and everyone can be proud of us.”

On his form, Morkel said he had put in the hours to get his conditioning back after a long struggle with a back injury. And while it was difficult watching the ball go past the outside edge so much in England, he can still take some encouragement from his performance.

“It was very frustrating but at least, in those conditions, I was asking the right questions,” he said. “I’ve put a lot of hard work in over the past four or five months … physically, mentally and also adapting to the conditions. “In the nets I started to play around with the grip of the ball and got it to nibble a bit with a wobbled seam and from there it was just important to work out different angles.”