Morne Morkel backs Bhuvneshwar Kumar to find his rhythm after an expensive return

India's bowling coach has asked Bhuvneshwar Kumar to stop chasing a result and trust the skills that earned him a recall after four years away

Two matches into his second life as an India T20I bowler, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has conceded 99 runs from eight overs, and the questions came quickly enough that Morne Morkel gave much of his Wellington press conference to answering them.

The 36-year-old returned 0-49 in the first T20I in Christchurch and 1-50 in the second, an economy rate of 12.37 across the two games. India won both and lead the five-match series 2-0.

"I have got a lot of sympathy for his return," Morkel said of a bowler who had not played a T20I since a series against New Zealand in November 2022.

Two costly spells in Christchurch

Bhuvneshwar was picked to give India control at the start and the end of an innings, and in Christchurch he found neither. His only wicket came in the second match, by which time his first four overs of the tour had already gone for 49.

Morkel pointed to how little bowling his senior seamer had been able to do between selection and the first ball of the series. He had trained for a month before the squad was named, the coach said, but the schedule left him short of overs once he was in it.

The coach was careful not to treat two spells as a verdict. "He has done exceptionally well in the IPL; he has bowled really well," Morkel said.

Four years between caps

The recall was built on that IPL record rather than on recent international form. Bhuvneshwar took 17 wickets in 2025 and 28 in 16 matches in 2026, when he finished as the tournament's joint second-highest wicket-taker.

Those two seasons ended with Royal Challengers Bengaluru winning back-to-back titles, and with a bowler of 36 still trusted with the overs nobody else wants.

What the selectors could not hand him was the four years of international cricket he had missed, or the expectation that returned with the cap.

The message from the coach

Morkel's advice was to narrow the task to the next ball rather than the comeback around it. "Do not chase anything, just be you," he said.

"So let's not think about any outside noises. Just be you and connect with that," the coach added.

He expects the rhythm to follow the overs: "every game you will get better and every game you will find your rhythm."

Why Prince Yadav came in

India's other change in the seam attack was read as a dropping and was presented as something smaller. Prince Yadav replaced Mayank Yadav for the second T20I and returned 1-30 from four overs; Mayank had taken 1-40 from four in the first.

"That was just purely a tactical sort of change we felt was needed at that venue," Morkel said, citing the dew on the ball while bowling second, the dimensions of the ground and the value of an accurate yorker.

"I felt Mayank bowled really well in that game," he said. "So it is definitely not because of performance."

On the two quick bowlers he is choosing between, Morkel said Mayank "is still raw and he still needs to understand a lot in terms of how to read and how to set up an over", while Prince's "execution is just slightly higher".

What Wellington adds

The third T20I moves to Sky Stadium, a ground whose wind is as much a part of the contest as the pitch. Morkel, who bowled there for South Africa, said the conditions would shape how both sides bat as well as how they bowl.

For a bowler built on swing and length rather than pace, that may be the most useful thing Wellington offers him this week.

India can put the series beyond New Zealand with a win at Sky Stadium on Tuesday, and Morkel has made clear that Bhuvneshwar will get the chance to be part of it.

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