India’s fielding is a work in progress, says fielding coach

The fielding gaffes in the fifth Test match was no different as K L Rahul grassed Moeen Ali, when the left-hander was yet to open his account, and the batsman went on to score a century and rub salt into India’s wounds.

India’s fielding coach R Sridhar, after the end of the first day’s play here, concurred with the fact that there was a lot of work to be done in improving the fielding standards.  “I would agree that our catching, especially our close in catching off pacers behind the stumps has not been up to scratch this series. We have set right standards for the last two years and in this series things haven’t gone our way,” Sridhar said.

Commenting on the dropped catch, Sridhar said: “It burst through his fingers and over his head. Maybe the timing of his jump could have been better. But these things happen in cricket. It was a tough situation for England at that time, getting Moeen out early could have helped us because the first hour there was little moisture on the wicket which we could have exploited.” 

The assistant coach said improving the standards of India’s fielding was a work in progress. “There have been a few injuries for players in the series. We have changed personnel in the close cordon often. It is not an excuse but we are working on it (improvement). We are trying to manage the workload, the injury part to the fingers etc. We are sure to get better from here,” Sridhar added.

With Virat Kohli taking Ajinkya Rahane’s positon at slip, Sridhar said the team missed Kohli’s contributions inside the circle. “We are missing Kohli’s energy in the outfield. He is a live wire when he is fielding short cover and short mid-wicket, where he stops a lot of singles and creates opportunities. But now with Kohli at slip, he has been as good as Ajinkya is.

At the same time like I said we are just missing his energy but we have Jaddu who stepped in. He has been magnificent. He stopped a few boundaries and a few singles at covers. So, with Kohli at slip, there is no difference in the slip cordon except that we miss his energy in the outfield,” Sridhar added.