Chris Morris: “I’m always going to be fighting for my spot because playing for South Africa is what I want to do”
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
South Africa all-rounder Chris Morris is ready to make his comeback after spending a lengthy period of time on the sidelines with a back injury.
Morris sustained the injury when South Africa were in England in August, but given how his recovery is going, he is expected to return midway through the Ram Slam, which is South Africa’s domestic Twenty20 competition.
In addition to wanting to get back on the field, Morris received some help from head coach Ottis Gibson and tweaked his bowling action, which he attributed as the cause of his back problem.
“I’ve had a few tweaks in my action that Ottis has changed. I had to iron it out because it wasn’t good enough – simple as that,” Morris was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. “I think in striving for a bit of extra pace, there was some twisting in my action.
“I’ve got quite a bad kick-out with my left foot before I land. I was getting lazy and doing quite a lot of twisting, which caused a lot of pressure on my lower back and inevitably caused the injury.
“If I didn’t get injured I still would have had to change my action. In bowling, you like to work in straight lines, and I was working along the wrong lines. That’s where the injury came along.
“We can’t re-scan the same injury because we’d see the same thing the whole time. So we work on symptoms – if there is pain you stop, otherwise you play. I’ve got to trust the gym and rehab, all the things I’ve been doing behind the scenes since my injury happened.”
With Gibson having helped Morris potentially avoid a stress fracture in his back, the Pretoria native admitted that he wants to continue working with the 48-year-old going forward.
“I’ve only had a week and a half with him and he’s been excellent. In England, he had the fortune of working with the best new-ball attack in the world in my opinion,” Morris said. “If they’ve rubbed off on him, as a South African bowling attack we’re going to be richer for it.
“He’s been doing this for a long time and has a lot of experience. It’s quite clear what our plans are going forward as a team. We’re in a happy space, and it’s quite exciting.”
With South Africa’s next assignment being the inaugural four-day Test match against Zimbabwe on Boxing Day, the Proteas can expect to have the luxury of having all their pace bowlers being fit.
Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel and Wayne Parnell have all sustained injuries, but should be fully fit in time for the match.
As a result, Morris’ spot in the Test side is not guaranteed. Despite this, the all-rounder is determined to keep putting in the hard yards and add to the four Tests he has played thus far.
“It’s always good to know that the coach is backing the guys who aren’t playing, especially with injuries because that’s part of the game,” Morris said. “If a youngster is better than me he must play, it’s as simple as that, but I’m always going to be fighting for my spot because playing for South Africa is what I want to do.
“If I never play for South Africa again it’s cool, but I’m going to give it my best shot. I’m obviously champing at the bit. It hurt me quite a lot to see the guys running around this morning and playing soccer, so I’ve got quite a lot of motivation.”