Albie Morkel joins Bangladesh as power-hitting coach

Albie Morkel has joined the Bangladesh men's national team as the power-hitting coach for the ODI leg of their tour of South Africa. On Tuesday, Morkel linked up with the Bangladesh touring party at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, where they are playing an intra-squad practice match.

The BCB had expressed the desire to add a power-hitting coach to the support staff line-up soon after Bangladesh's poor performance at the T20 World Cup last year.

"He [Morkel] will be with the ODI team for a week or so. He will help the batters," Jalal Yunus, the BCB's cricket operations chairman, said. "We will see how it goes, and then decide what happens afterwards."

This is the second turn as a coach for 40-year-old Morkel, who played one Test, 58 ODIs and 50 T20Is for South Africa between 2004 and 2015, after playing the role of assistant coach for the Namibia men's national team soon after retiring from the game in January 2019.

BCB has been in the process of revamping the coaching staff of the senior men's team. Currently, Khaled Mahmud is the team director while Russell Domingo is the head coach. Batting coach Jamie Siddons is working with the specialist Test batters in a separate camp in Cape Town, while Domingo and the rest - including Allan Donald, the new fast-bowling coach, and Morkel - are in Johannesburg with the ODI squad. Apart from them, spin-bowling coach Rangana Herath and fielding coach Shane McDermott are also with the squad.

Bangladesh will play three ODIs against South Africa, as part of the ODI Super League, on March 18, 20 and 23. They will also play two World Test Championship matches from March 31.