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Durban - The fitness of Morne Morkel was the big cloud hanging around the South African team on Wednesday, but Proteas coach Russell Domingo says the fast bowler should play in the second Test against India starting at Kingsmead, in Durban, on Thursday.
“He seems to be okay, so that's good news for us.” said Domingo at a training session at the ground a day before the match.
“Just briefly chatting to Morne he seems to be fine. That's good news for us.”
Morkel sustained an ankle injury in the first drawn Test at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Sunday, which prevented him from bowling in the second innings, and either Rory Kleinveldt or Kyle Abbott looked set to replace the bowler.
Morkel, though, looked to have made a miraculous recovery as he was seen batting in the nets on Wednesday, albeit with some strapping to his ankle.
Morkel also looked to have no problem walking indicating little discomfort, if any.
While Domingo was confident Morkel would play instead of Kleinveldt or Abbott, he felt he may need to change his spinner as Imran Tahir returned figures of 2-113 in the first Test at just under five runs to the over.
“In all likeliness I'll play the spinner. It's highly unlikely we'll change the makeup of the team.
"We need to think about it a bit more. We'll probably need someone to do more of a holding role for us, Robin [Peterson] will probably come into to consideration but I still have to discuss that with the selectors and we'll make a decision later on today."
As for the batting surface, it was not exactly the result pitch Domingo may have wanted.
"It looks pretty dry which is probably not what we were expecting considering the amount of rain they've had around in Durban," he said.
"We were thinking it would be a bit slower than what we were accustomed to about ten years ago. It's going to be a hard Test match, it's not going to be a short 180 all out game.
"It's going to be another Test match under conditions that probably won't be a major benefit to us.”
