Team India fielding coach and former first-class cricketer, R Sridhar, has attributed India’s improved performance on the field to the captain Virat Kohli’s insistence on making fielding drills mandatory.
One crucial aspect in India’s Test victories in the last two series, against Sri Lanka and South Africa, apart from their bowling, has been their fielding; and coach Sridhar has Kohli to thank for it.
"Just before the Lanka series, Kohli wanted the players to have a 20-minute session of reflex catching in addition to the regular drills in every practice session. That proved to be the trigger and today, the players do much more than 20-minutes, and the results are there for all to see," he said.
This paradigm shift, he says, has been pivotal in the improved fielding standards of the Indian cricketers, a team that now has few of the most distinguished fielders in world cricket, namely Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, and the captain himself, amongst others.
Rahane is not only fantastic fielder in India team: Sridhar
The players in the subcontinent earlier were never identified with throwing themselves around in the field and stopping an easy single. However, with the advent of T20 cricket, and with the demands that have come with it- of fast paced cricket- fielders have realized the importance of good fielding what difference it can create on the overall result.
"There is a shift in the players' mindset with regards to fielding. They understand that they can make a contribution by just being good fielders, and are therefore giving equal importance to fielding as they would do to say bowling and batting," Sridhar told The Times of India.
He also revealed why India’s young blood now seems keen on developing fielding as a part of their overall abilities as a cricketer.
"The lush green grounds available across India help kids to dive and slide. They learn the basic skillset needed to be a good fiddler from that level which makes it easier for them to embrace fielding," he said.
Rahane, the man of the match in the last Test of the Freedom Trophy against South Africa, has been an exceptional fielder in the slips, and his partnership with Ravichandran Ashwin- the bowler-fielder partnership- has been tantamount to India making early inroads into the opposition's line-up.
"While Rahane has done a splendid job at the slips, we also have fantastic fielders in Pujara, Rohit, Murali Vijay, Virat and Ravindra Jadeja among others.”
“More importantly, efforts put in by our bowlers such as Ishant Sharma or Amit Mishra on the boundary line too has been exemplary," he said.
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