India Coach Morne Morkel Dismisses Talks of Dropping Abhishek Sharma

India bowling coach Morne Morkel dismissed concerns over Abhishek Sharma’s form, backing the opener to bounce back ahead of the Super 8 match.

India bowling coach Morne Morkel has backed Abhishek Sharma despite his poor run in the T20 World Cup 2026. The opener has recorded five ducks in his last seven innings, including three in a row in the 20-team tournament. Morkel said the team remains confident and believes he will regain form soon. He added that India has relied on other batters to step up while Abhishek struggles.

“Absolutely no discussion in our team group about that. Abhishek is a world-class player. Luckily, there were guys standing up with Abhishek, obviously not scoring the runs he would like. But we’re going through a very important phase of the World Cup now and I’m pretty sure he’s going to deliver,” Morkel said.

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“Not so much just for the team, but also for all the viewers watching the game, because he’s entertaining and we love to see that. So, yeah, I’m pretty sure [he’ll turn it around], he’s hitting the ball well in the nets. It’s just a matter of getting that start and getting his innings going,” he noted.

Team Working Hard To Fix Fielding Errors

Morkel also admitted that fielding needs improvement. India dropped nine catches in the group stage, the second-most after Ireland. He stressed that catching and cutting angles will be crucial in the knockout phase. The coach said players are working hard to improve standards and take difficult chances.

India is also evaluating bowling combinations for the South Africa match, focusing on plans to attack specific batters.

“One thing that we work hard on is our fielding. We know the importance of the catches, wherever we can cut down angles to stop the twos, to stop any boundaries. But catching is definitely going to play a big part now in the business end of the tournament,” he said.

“Unfortunately, no catch is an easy catch, and the boys are putting the yards in and catching a lot of balls. But that’s definitely one of our key focus points, is to really even go for those 50-50 ones, because we know how that can swing and break the momentum of a batting innings,”the coach continued.

“Yeah, definitely we discuss options in terms of how we’re going to approach our bowling innings against different teams. I think it’s important to stay awake and to keep on looking for ways that we can strike better and where we can have guys attacking specific batters,” Morne Morkel added.

India will play their first Super 8 match against South Africa on February 22 in Ahmedabad.