India's tendency to drop easy catches is going to come back and bite them one day

Back in 2011, former England captain Nasser Hussain commented that “India have three or four very good fielders and one or two donkeys in the field” which sparked off quite a backlash. It is widely believed that the current lot of fielders are the most athletic group of Indian fielders to have ever stepped out on the field.

Even during India’s tour of England, in 2014, MS Dhoni’s team dropped plenty of catches, especially in the slip cordon. It was Shikhar Dhawan who was singled out during the debacle but it was masked by India’s tame show with the bat against James Anderson and Stuart Broad, as they lost 1-3 in the five-match Test series after taking the lead in the second match.

In Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Ravindra Jadeja, the side has some of the best fielders in the world. There have a man who took a world-record eight catches in an innings. India’s fielding coach R Sridhar once said that “Even God could come, stand at the slips and drop a catch, but not Rahane”. It beggars belief how the India’s safest pair of hands had seen his lofty standards slip in this series as he too, dropped a regulation catch at Rajkot.

Kohli and Jadeja offer energy and dynamism and fielding it is their agility on the field that got them noticed when they broke into the team for the first time. Jadeja’s uncanny ability to break the stumps with direct hits, is talked about as unparalleled in the business.

India dropped several chances at Rajkot in the first session of the day’s play. Even Wriddhiman Saha’s reliable pair of hands spooned a couple of easy chances in the space of minutes. But after a reasonably decent performance (though catches were dropped there as well) in the second Test at Visakhapatnam, they reverted to their old ways in the first session of the first day in the third Test at Mohali.

The catching

Yet again, it was Alastair Cook who got a reprieve, much like the first Test. The first chance went to Ravindra Jadeja at second slip, who was surprised by the ball rushing towards him. Perhaps, the last-second change surprised him as the England captain had his bat turned towards his leg side off Mohammed Shami. The ball beat Jadeja and headed to the fence.

The second chance, and comfortably the simpler one of the two, came from Cook again. This time, it was Ravinchandran Ashwin who was the guilty part as he grassed a dolly off a lazy chip from Cook. Yet again, it was Shami who had created the chance. The ace-spinner would make amends by scalping Cook’s wicket but his misery on the field was not over yet.

What’s wrong with the fielding?

This is another area where India have improved by leaps and bounds over the last few years. Apart from the aforementioned names, the limited-overs setup also has Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya, who are world-class ground fielders.

Ashwin has been an asset with the bat and ball but while fielding, his efforts have been laboured and he has often been shunted to areas where batsmen are least likely to score by Dhoni and Kohli. A schoolboyish misfield, which saw Ashwin let the ball go between his legs and to the the boundary evoked memories of why Hussain made that infamous comment in the first place.

Ashwin’s Tamil Nadu teammate, Murali Vijay, who was culpable of dropping a stitter in the slips at Rajkot, failed to cut off the ball at third-man when he ought to have done better at fine-leg. At this point, Kohli lost his cool and was seen wiping the sweat off his face in frustration.

Two deliveries later, the Indian skipper even got a telling off from the umpire for chucking the ball back to keeper in a fit of anger, scraping Jonny Bairstow’s left-arm. When asked about the alarming rate at which India dropped catches after the first Test, Kohli had responded, “In Test cricket if you don’t take your chances then the game is very difficult to pull back. I think that was the main difference rather than skill or pitch or toss”

He added, “If you take your chances, you have a team five down for a 100 compared to three down for 250. It’s a different ball game altogether.” With four bowlers doing an excellent job with the ball, the missed opportunities barely mattered as England were almost five down for 100 at the stroke of lunch on a Mohali track that looks like a lively wicket to bat on.