New Zealand vs India 2020: Virat Kohli urges India to improve their fielding

Indian skipper Virat Kohli expressed his disappointment at his team’s fielding efforts in the recently-concluded T20I series against New Zealand and made it pretty clear that he expects his teammates to follow really high standards in the field.

There were several dropped catches and other fielding errors by the Indians during the course of the five-match T20I series against the Blackcaps.

Kohli stated that no excuses were good enough for India’s below-par fielding efforts in the T20I series and he expects a much-improved performance in the upcoming ODI and the Test series against the Kiwis.

Kohi was quoted as saying by IANS,

“We definitely have recognized it as something that, if you look at the average age of this team, it’s 27 max. So we should be fielding way better than what we have. I think the standards of fielding overall were not that good from either side. T20 cricket it can happen because the game is so fast-paced.

“So once you get into a nervous zone, it’s very difficult to get out of it. It’s moving so quickly and the ball keeps coming to you."

Mistakes are bound to happen, especially in a T20I game where things tend to turn around rather quickly and Kohli understands that aspect.

However, the Indian captain added that his team have committed the same mistakes even in the 50-over format and that is an area which has been discussed time and again in the dressing room.

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But Kohli is well aware of the fact that expecting immediate results in the field might backfire and said that India are heading towards the right direction as far as fielding is concerned.

Kohli added,

“Even in one-day cricket, we have had performances that we are not proud of and there’s no hiding from it. We’ve spoken about it so many times. You certainly expect a young bunch of guys who are very fit and very, very good fielders to do the job for you in the field collectively and not just focus on batting or bowling. It’s about taking all three skills seriously and committing to it like bowling or batting.

“With fielding it’s not a matter of execution or result immediately. Things can be taken for granted. That’s something that we want to stay away from. The team’s heading in the right direction, whatever is lacking we need to be able to correct and move forward.”