'Unknowns' are youngsters' biggest challenge: Morkel

Perth: Various factors, injuries or otherwise, coupled with their recent record in Tests, have replaced the cloak of confidence around the Indian team with doubts and speculations as they prepare for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy opener here from Friday.

There's a guessing game for the third seamer's slot between Prasidh Krishna and Nitish Rana, though Akash Deep is never too far away from discussion. Devdutt Padikkal has officially been included in the squad, and while he is tipped to come in at No. 3 in place of Shubman Gill, bowling coach Morne Morkel said the team would wait "till the morning of the match" to take a call on the injured right-hander.

"Yeah, Shubman is improving every day," said Morkel, who came instead of R Ashwin to address the media. Ashwin apparently had to rush to practice after a couple of lengthy team meetings ate into his time for the media.

After all, replacements are quite the fad with the Indian team on this tour!  

"He (Gill) obviously picked up a nasty blow in that warm-up game, in the squad game. I think with him it's going to be a day-to-day sort of process, fingers crossed for that improvement, but I think they'll wait to make a call with him up until the morning of the Test match."

Meanwhile, Gill spent time watching the Indian "nets" on the sideline while Padikkal sweated it out against the Indian quicks, including the reserves.  

By talking up Nitish Reddy, ahead of Wednesday's practice, Morkel left room for more speculation. Will India then hand debuts to two players, the other being Rana? While that will be known in a day, what's certain is KL Rahul would walk in with Yashasvi Jaiswal to open. Many players have been benefited by Rahul's frequent injuries and lengthy lay-offs, it's only fair the stylish right-hander gets the rub of the green go his way.

While there's a big doubt over Gill, skipper Rohit Sharma has already ruled out for the opener. Including Padikkal, there are a lot of first-timers coming to Australia, which can either potentially make or mar your career.     

"I think pressure is one thing, but there's a lot of unknowns," he pointed out. "You'll look at the wicket, you'll try and formulate your own sort of game plan. How the wicket is going to play, but I think that's the beauty about Test cricket, some of those conditions, fight through it, break it down into sessions, and get yourself into a partnership, and it's going to be great learning for these guys. It's young guys that can come up and front up against a quality Test bowling attack. Australia is not going to bowl you many bad balls, but in saying that, there's good leadership within the group that can help and settle their nerves with that."

"So I think as a group, we're all excited for the challenge, we know what's sort of to come, we know the wicket is going to be fast, it's going to be bouncy, and it's up to the individual now to formulate their game plans, and get themselves in a mental sort of battle state that for the next 42 days, it's going to be tough cricket."      

The high praise for Nitish from Morkel, however, piqued the interest of the gathering. The Hyderabad all-rounder, who has 779 runs and 56 wickets in 23 first-class matches, could be the fourth seamer who will beef up the lower middle-order, just as Washington Sundar would with his off-spin variety.               

"He's one of the young guys that I've mentioned that has got that sort of batting all-round ability," Morkel began. "He'll be the guy that can sort of hold the one end up first. He hits the bat a little bit harder than you think. I think in these sorts of conditions where there might be a little bit of seam movement up front, especially the first couple of days, he will be a handy, very accurate, wicket-to-wicket style of bowler. A lovely opportunity for him to fill that all-rounder spot."

"Any team in the world always wants the all-rounder that can take that load off your fast bowler just to give him an extra bit of breathing time. How we use him, how Jasprit is going to use him with maybe a spinner to give himself, and whoever is going to be the other quicks, time to catch breath a little bit is going to be important. Yeah, definitely a player you can keep your eye on in this series."