The Indian cricket team was seen practising hard before the Rajkot Test against England. Fielding coach R Sridhar appeared to be making his pupils train like army cadets. However, those videos have become a joke as the Indian fielders are fielding like school boys. The team has dropped 5 catches so far. They had dropped three catches on day 1 and dropped Ben Stokes twice in a few overs on Day 2. Indian keeper Wriddhiman Saha dropped him twice, both the times of Umesh Yadav’s bowling.
The mayhem at field began at the very start of the match. England captain Alastair Cook had not opened his account when he nicked a ball and was dropped at slips. Ajinkya Rahane, who is considered to be the safest pair of hands at slips, dropped the catch. Though it should not have happened, but one mistake can be excused as it is a sport and not everything goes as planned. However, the same mistake was repeated by the fielders in the next over. Alastair Cook was again dropped at the slips. He was playing on 2 runs. Another England opener Haseeb Hameed was dropped when England’s score was 25 for no loss. Both the dropped catches came of Umesh Yadav’s bowling.
Ben Stokes was dropped twice on Day 2 (Photo: Reuters/Amit Dave)
May be the Indians were having just one bad day in the field. But that’s not the case. India dropped Ben Stokes twice of Umesh Yadav’s bowling. Ben Stokes had completed his 50 when the catches were dropped and he is looking dangerous as England were heading towards a big score. At lunch, England were 450 for the loss of 6 wickets.
This atrocious performance should embarrass the players and the coaching team. The BCCI on its twitter account uploaded various videos of players practising catches at slip and doing the fielding drill. What is the use of such drills if the Indian team was putting up such an ugly fielding show?
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