Morkel said it would be interesting to see how the young Indian batsmen cope with the South African pace battery now that the likes of Tendulkar are not in the visiting team.
"Sachin was a batsman who could bat for a long time. And he put the bowlers and the opposition under pressure by batting for a long time. He was the rock for their batting. He could bat with the top-order and the middle order both," said Morkel two days ahead of the first Test.
Tendulkar retired from all forms of cricket after playing his 200th Test against the West Indies in Mumbai last month. His departure left a huge void in the Indian team and that will be most visible when the Test series begins.
"Like I said, they are all very quality guys. Rohit Sharma has been scoring runs off late and Cheteshwar Pujara can bat for time at number three. Even R Aswhin averages 40 at the back-end of their line-up. So we need to make use of the early morning conditions with the new ball. We need to be on the money from Wednesday itself, otherwise they can score quickly and at Wanderers, sometimes it can be a high scoring game," he said.