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Asia Cup Match: Indian bowling coach Morne Morkel did not reveal much on the bowling combination ahead of the Men-In-Blue's Asia Cup opening match against the UAE. Morkel stated that the decision will be taken after having a look at the wicket. The former South African pacer also praised spinner Kuldeep Yadav and his professionalism despite sitting out on the bench during India's tour of England.

India have a barrage of quality spinners in their arsenal to choose from as they begin the Asia Cup campaign in Dubai International Cricket Stadium from Wednesday. With spinners Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, and Varun Chakravarthy, one can safely assume that the side is spoilt for choices.

Speaking during the pre-tournament presser, Morkel said about the bowling combination, if India plays three or four spinners, "We need to go and look at the wicket. I think when the Champions Trophy was played at that time, there was a lot of cricket on the surfaces here and they looked a little bit tired."

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"So again, tonight we will have a first look at the surface, and I believe there is quite a bit of grass covering on the square. So we will have a good idea going into the first game in terms of what is sort of a better way to go, but in terms of planning at the moment, we're covering all bases, and then we will make a decision on the match day," he added.

Speaking about Kuldeep, who bowled 32 overs in Central Zone's Duleep Trophy quarterfinal but went wicketless and also missed out on playing chances in England in favour of spin bowling all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, Morkel was full of praise for the spinner with 69 wickets in 40 T20Is at an average of 14.07.

"I think he is a very professional athlete. His attitude since England, where he received hardly any game time, he is still the guy who put the overs in. And for me, Kuldeep, like I said, he has bowled a lot of overs in his career. He knows what to do to get himself ready for T20 cricket, white-ball cricket. And like I said, we can control only what we can control now, and that is when we do train now and when we have our sessions, that it is focused, that there is a purpose behind it, and we have goals. We set those goals out and from there, it is up to them to go out and lead with the ball," he concluded.

Kuldeep Yadav Recent Stats:

Kuldeep took two crucial wickets in the final of the Champions Trophy here in Dubai, and a total of seven wickets in five matches at an average of 31.85 and an economy rate of 4.79.

His last T20I for India was the T20 World Cup final last year in June, where he went wicketless for 45 runs in four overs. He took 10 wickets in five matches at an average of 13.90 in India's title-winning campaign.

Team India squad for Asia Cup: Surya Kumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson (WK), Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh

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Reserve players: Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Yashasvi Jaiswal. 

Inputs from ANI