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MUMBAI: With five wins in five games, India have been on a dream run in the Asia Cup. Abhishek Sharma & Co have put on a batting show while Kuldeep Yadav & Co have spun a web around the opposition line-ups.
India’s captain Suryakumar Yadav dives unsuccessfully to take a catch of Bangladesh’s Saif Hassan during the Asia Cup. (AP)
For a team playing such ruthless cricket, it’s quite bizarre to see them struggling with their fielding. Their dominating displays have been marred by a series of dropped catches. In the ongoing tournament, India has dropped as many as 12 catches.
During the six-wicket triumph over Pakistan in the Super Fours, India dropped four catches. The trend continued on Wednesday, with Bangladesh’s top scorer Saif Hassan being handed four lives (on 40, 65, 66 and 67).
After India’s victory over Pakistan, reflecting on India’s fielding woes, captain Suryakumar Yadav jokingly said, “The fielding coach T Dilip has emailed the boys with butter on their fingers to appear before him.”
However, this has not been just about the Asia Cup. It has been the story of the season. In February, India won the ICC Champions Trophy final, also played at the Dubai International Stadium, but dropped four catches.
Even during the Test series in England there were many chances that went abegging, with India dropping as many as 23 catches in five games — the most they have ever dropped in a series, seven more than when they toured Australia in 2018/19.
India are so entertaining in batting, so efficient in bowling, yet when it comes to catching the quality has taken a hit? Now that the cricketers’ fitness levels have become so much better, shouldn’t it automatically translate to better catching?
“Since you are persistent enough, I will put it down to not enough practice,” said R Sridhar, who was India’s fielding coach during head coach Ravi Shastri’s successful tenure.
“Because I believe, in today’s practice, everyone wants to bat, (there are) six to seven nets, they keep batting and then they go to the gym, do their running. Somewhere, the time they devote to fielding is drastically reducing. In practice, nowadays, sometimes they do (fielding) for 30-35 minutes. It is a lack of practice.”
At the Asia Cup, India’s catching efficiency is 67.6 percent (12 dropped out of 25). Among the eight teams, they are only above Hong Kong.
“You become a superstar by hitting sixes, not by taking diving catches. You don’t get Grade A contracts or million dollar IPL contracts by taking good catches. They need to hit sixes every third ball, and that is what they are practicing,” said Sridhar, a BCCI Level 3 qualified coach who served as India’s fielding coach across more than 300 international matches from 2014 to 2021.
In the England Test series, India’s catch efficiency was 66.2 percent as they dropped 23 out of the 45 catches. England’s catching efficiency was 78.5 percent.
“The England series comes after four years. In Tests in India, you don’t need the slips, the silly point and short-leg. R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja gobble everybody. So you don’t stand enough in the slips for you to become a good fielder. It is just a lack of time in that position,” said Sridhar.
The issue is not recent. India’s catching efficiency has been on a steady decline. Among the 12 Test playing nations, India are 10th in best catch efficiency (78.1 percent) since the start of 2023. In ODIs too, since the start of 2023 among the 12 full member teams, India is at 10th spot (75.6 percent).
The butter fingers aren’t just restricted to the national team. A sore point of the 2025 IPL was the number of catches that were grassed.
“Even if you look at the IPL teams, the focus is to pad up and go hit sixes,” said Sridhar. “There are 20 net bowlers lined up, six to seven throwdown specialists, and the batters keep hitting sixes. (Then, they think) I need to field too, so let’s go and take five-six catches. That’s the mindset. I have seen the IPL teams from close, there is no one to drive a fielding culture forward. Because that is not what gets them advertisements or revenue. It is sixes and yorkers.”
Apart from eating into fielding practice hours, another casualty of the increase in the throwdown culture is batters avoiding rolling their arms over during practice. There was a time when India had Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag to chip in with a few overs.
“I wrote in my book (Coaching Beyond) also, our batters don’t do bowling because since the throwdown has come, they have got an extra lane and they bat extra. That’s why in between, all-rounders had reduced. We had only specialist batters. Abhishek Sharma bowls so it gets better (In T20Is) but if you see Shubman Gill doesn’t bowl, Yashasvi Jaiswal doesn’t bowl, Sai Sudarshan doesn’t bowl. You take the Test team, no one bowls. Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel are all-rounders, that is different,” said Sridhar.
“The focus is so much on batting, they are doing less fielding practice. They are being pampered by throwdown specialists, net bowlers and multiple pitches laid out. For hours they keep hitting. That is why they are in the team, I agree, but, boss, you got to go and do your fielding also.”
At the Dubai International Stadium, the fielders have to adjust to the ring of fire (lights placed on the front of the roof instead of light towers). How can a fielder cut the glare?
“My advice will be if the ball goes in the light, it will come down, stay put, do not panic, use your hand to block out the glare or change the angle by getting lower on the knees, or turning a little sideways or use the tip of the cap which can also cut off the glare,” said Sridhar. “You will miss the ball for a fraction of a second, it is okay, but what you should not do is panic. These are the simple technical adjustments that you can make in a stadium like the Dubai International Stadium.”
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