Indian Fielding: A perennial problem child.

                      

Indian cricket has evolved over last several decades and we have produced a long list of wonderful batsmen and some quality   medium fast bowlers and spinners who have mesmerized the batsmen with their guile and craft. India has always been an excellent batting side with a couple of bowlers to rely upon in the team. The lack of athleticism and quality fielding standards has been the bane of Indian cricket. India has never been a good fielding side and barring a handful players, the rest of the players have been very average as far as the fielding skills are concerned have always wondered regarding the reasons behind being a poor fielding side. Some of the popular belief is that the small kids are encouraged to stress on batting or bowling skills and as a result from the young age they are not made to realize the importance of excelling in the fielding department. There are several reasons which prevent a youngster from developing and honing his fielding skills from a younger age.

The batting and bowling facets of the sport are emphasized majorly while the fielding aspect of a youngster has always been neglected, this situation is improving over last decade or so but still a lot of legwork needs to be done as far as the fielding aspect is concerned. A good coach will always emphasize on improving the fielding skills whether it is catching or ground fielding. Fielding is the only aspect of the game which can be vastly improved by virtue of putting hard work and where very little skill aspect of the game is relied upon. Fielding skills can be vastly enhanced by merely enjoying the fielding drills and practice sessions. A good fielder is the one who anticipates the movement of the ball and adjusts himself accordingly wanting the ball to come to him. There are ample evidences of young Indian fielders shying away from fielding drills and not wanting the ball. Over the last few decades there have been merely a handful of international class fielders. The late Eknath Solkar was an absolute dream at forward short leg. Standing close by to the batsmen he took a number of brilliant reflex catches off Prasanna, Chandrashekhar and Bishen Bedi thus contributing significantly to their test wicket tally. Kapil Dev Nikhanj was a brilliant all round fielder who was supremely fit in all conditions and remained injury free virtually for the major part of his long career. In the 90’s, Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja were among the best in the world when it came to saving runs on the field and taking spectacular catches. Yuvraj singh and Mohammad Kaif emerged on the international scene in early 2000. Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma are top class fielders who are a plus for the rest of the mediocre Indian fielding side.

It is just appalling to see the likes of Zaheer Khan,Munaf Patel and R Ashwin who are very poor fielders and a liability on the field for any side. The Indian pacers regardless of their age have always been mediocre fielders in stark comparison to Brett Lee and a couple of other overseas pacers who have been athletic fielders even in their mid 30’s. The overall hard and bumpy Indian maidans and grounds are responsible to some extent for the fielders being slightly wary of diving and sliding to save some runs.  Over the last few years there has been a marked improvement in the outfield conditions in most of the Indian cricket stadiums and not surprisingly a lot of young brilliant fielders are emerging on the first class circuit. But still clearly a lot of legwork needs to be done in order to improve the overall fielding standards of the Indian team. Indian cricket team cannot match the fielding standards of the likes of Australia and South Africa but by instilling the importance of being an athletic fielding side can do wonders in due course of time. Long gone are the days when a good batsman or a bowler could do his job of scoring runs or picking wickets and just languishing at third man or fine leg. In today’s competitive atmosphere, every player regardless of his stature needs to contribute on the field by virtue of his fielding skills.