Of dropped catches & misfields

[King]

Rahul Dravid may not like it, but among the top five teams in the ICC One-day rankings, India may well be the worst fielding side. More... Of dropped catches & misfields PTI BRISTOL, August 25: India's might have pulled off a win in the second One-dayer against England but for all their class and flair, the performance of the Men in Blue on the field is fast becoming an embarrassment. Rahul Dravid may not like it, but among the top five teams in the ICC One-day rankings, India may well be the worst fielding side. Having put up a mammoth 329 for seven in the match, the Indians quickly slipped to their disastrous best when it came to fielding. It was simply unbelievable to see Munaf Patel lazily saunter towards the ball at wide third man and try to stop the ball with his foot, only to gift a boundary to Matt Prior in the very first over bowled by Ajit Agarkar. Worse was to follow. Prior was then dropped at first slip by Sourav Ganguly on eight off Agarkar, again in the third over, although to be fair to Ganguly he may have been distracted by the fact that wicketkeeper MS Dhoni feigned to go for the catch. Dhoni then made a mess of a regulation catch off Kevin Pietersen in Ganguly's first over and in the same over, Ganguly himself was being more than generous when he refused to accept a nice return catch from the same batsman. Similarly, Ian Bell, England's top scorer with 64, should have been back in the hut just for one run, but was shockingly dropped at third man by Ramesh Powar. By the time they were through with their first 15 overs, the Indians had dropped four catches and conceded a couple of more boundaries. And fielding was not the only woe for Team India. The Indians bowled no less than 15 wides and six no-balls. It only means that bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad now needs to work overtime. Ditto with India's fielding coach Robin Singh. Dravid has acknowledged his team's shortcomings, saying, "Fielding isn't our strong area and we're not going to develop strong arms and athletic legs overnight. But we need to constantly work on." Those improvements, however, haven't been evident in recent games. For all his skills at the bowling crease, Powar looks more like a wrestler than a cricketer while Munaf seems hopelessly disinclined to work on his fielding.

[King]

I don't believe it is the age of the players that can be used as an excuse. Whatever the age you can still catch the ball. I think it is just lack of proper training. Rahul and Ganguly are top class catchers in the slip but the same can't be said about them when they are not in the slips. I can understand getting a bit slow with age but there is no excuses for dropping catches and letting the ball through the legs. Whatever the age fielding and catching is an area that needs constant training. I suppose the older players can mentally be already resigned about their fielding abilities. I saw Lara diving around and fielding like a 18 year old in the last one year. He was way older than some of our guys but was still a top class fielder in the inner ring. I think there is lack of effort by the team in the fielding and catching department. India relies heavily on batting and bowling to win games. We also saw the running between the wickets not improve at all with Ganguly in the second ODI. Fair enough he has gone slower but that doesn't mean you forget the basics. If Ganguly has improved his leg side batting he can as well improve his running between the wickets. It's no rocket science but needs attention. I hope the Indian team does consider fielding, catching and running between wickets as important as batting and bowling. It is possible not enough attention is given to these departments.

[Guest dada_rocks]

One becomes bad fielder for one and only reaosn and that reason is the person doesn;t enjoy fielding.. it's hard to be a bad fielder if u look forward to fielding....

[Chandan]

I don't believe it is the age of the players that can be used as an excuse. Whatever the age you can still catch the ball. I think it is just lack of proper training. Rahul and Ganguly are top class catchers in the slip but the same can't be said about them when they are not in the slips. I can understand getting a bit slow with age but there is no excuses for dropping catches and letting the ball through the legs. Whatever the age fielding and catching is an area that needs constant training. I suppose the older players can mentally be already resigned about their fielding abilities. I saw Lara diving around and fielding like a 18 year old in the last one year. He was way older than some of our guys but was still a top class fielder in the inner ring. I think there is lack of effort by the team in the fielding and catching department. India relies heavily on batting and bowling to win games. We also saw the running between the wickets not improve at all with Ganguly in the second ODI. Fair enough he has gone slower but that doesn't mean you forget the basics. If Ganguly has improved his leg side batting he can as well improve his running between the wickets. It's no rocket science but needs attention. I hope the Indian team does consider fielding, catching and running between wickets as important as batting and bowling. It is possible not enough attention is given to these departments.

Ravi, It has nothing to do with age I suppose. Munaf is just 23. Why is he so bad? Powar--28, Zaheer--29, Dhoni--26. These guys lack the funamentals of fielding, which makes it even more difficult for them to improve!

[simba28]

bring back kaif.. or make him the bowling coach at least.. raina was a gud fielder too

[zubinpepsi]

kaif- the bowling coach?? dude r u drunk ?? inspite of all the lapses we won which shows how pathetic Eng are.. KP was reprieved twice but he cudnt make use of them..

[simba28]

its a joke zubin.. n u took it literally.. n we cant judge ourselves by how bad the other team does

[Dooks]

I don't believe it is the age of the players that can be used as an excuse. Whatever the age you can still catch the ball. I think it is just lack of proper training. Rahul and Ganguly are top class catchers in the slip but the same can't be said about them when they are not in the slips. I can understand getting a bit slow with age but there is no excuses for dropping catches and letting the ball through the legs. Whatever the age fielding and catching is an area that needs constant training. I suppose the older players can mentally be already resigned about their fielding abilities. I saw Lara diving around and fielding like a 18 year old in the last one year. He was way older than some of our guys but was still a top class fielder in the inner ring. I think there is lack of effort by the team in the fielding and catching department. India relies heavily on batting and bowling to win games. We also saw the running between the wickets not improve at all with Ganguly in the second ODI. Fair enough he has gone slower but that doesn't mean you forget the basics. If Ganguly has improved his leg side batting he can as well improve his running between the wickets. It's no rocket science but needs attention. I hope the Indian team does consider fielding, catching and running between wickets as important as batting and bowling. It is possible not enough attention is given to these departments.

Why was Ganguly in the slips in the first place? Dravid is the slips speacialist not Ganguly? Why can't Dravid captain from the slips? Also, have seen SRT in slips during the tests & he held on to most things except for one (or was it two) catches dropped. Again, SRT is great fielder but not a slip specialist. But SRT is probably better slip fielder than SRG. Slip fielding is a young man's game. India must make someone else a specialist (e.g. Karthick). I was a good slip fielder but gave up as I got older because my reactions were far too slow for a slip fielder. Now I just try to hide somewhere where the ball doesn't come very often. :giggle:

[King]

Ganguly has been a slip fielder for a long time and I reckon he isn't that bad. It is true Indians don't really do enough home work on the fielding positions. Rahul, Tendulkar (Tendulkar's a cricket freak and can field anywhere), Laxman and Ganguly are all good slip fielders. Ganguly is the worst of the 4 mentioned for sure. I don't trust Karthik as a catcher yet, he drops more than he holds on to. Sure he is a good catcher but is very inconsistent. He can grab on to a tough one but may spill an easy one. I think he has plenty of work to do if he has to be a slip fielder. My personal experience is that with age I have gotten better at slip fielding. I guess that could be something to do with the experience in watching the ball closely and also improving the catching technique. I guess I anticipate the ball better now than when I was a teen. Point, covers, sq leg and mid wicket are for the young ones as they can chase the ball better as well as return the ball quicker . That is one reason why you usually see senior players (in particular batsman) fielding in the slips usually.

[Dooks]

Ganguly has been a slip fielder for a long time and I reckon he isn't that bad. Ganguly is the worst of the 4 mentioned for sure.

Really? I somehow can't remember Ganguly fielding the slips apart from this tour! Must be getting old and senile:giggle:. Yup, agree Ganguly is the worst slip fielder & therefore shouldn't even be anywhere near the wicketkeeper. His best position is Mid-off/on & then when the assualt starts then behind Dhoni so that he can rest before opening the innings. What I don't understand is why isn't Dravid in the slips all the time? Oh! well this is India we are talking about - no logic necessary.

[King]

I think Rahul likes to talk to the bowlers these days and fields at mid on. As you said there is lack of planning as for fielding positions with the Indian team. Yuvraj is the only one that knows where he's going to field in every game :D

[Parth]

Catching in the close fielding ring is nothing to do with athletisicm, its about hand and eye corodination, Dhoni's catch was only reactions. Ganguly's catch to be fair was Dhoni's fault becuase I fel with the gloves, Dhni should have gone for it.

[Anakin]

SRT is excellent in slip, laxman is quite good. RD holds on to most but for the last few years has been dropping catches too frequently. Ganguly usually holds on to most catches. KKD as a slip fielder must be a joke. He drops more than he catches.

[Predator_05]

When you have a team full of old f@rts and incompetent fielders, be prepared to see catches go down.

Dravid has acknowledged his team's shortcomings' date=' saying, "Fielding isn't our strong area and [b']we're not going to develop strong arms and athletic legs overnight. But we need to constantly work on."

LMFAO. Rahul, you and your senior buddies have been playing international cricket for over 10 years and you are still a bunch of weaklings ?

[Ram]

Even RP Singh looked like a novice on the field that day. God knows what his problem with fielding is. Fielding well is mostly do with overall fitness. If you have faith in your body , you can always push it that much more , feel confident that you can chase a close-ball to the boundary , dive quick enough to stop the ball , or leap high enough to catch the ball. I get the impression seniors in our team are really skeptical about pushing that extra hard , for fear of injuring themselves. Their conservative attitude is costing us lot of runs. I still believe you can be a good fielder in your 30's. Take the case of Robin Singh. He threw himself around like a kid when he was 35