JOIN USCatching remains a concern
Even as India’s ground fielding improves at an impressive pace, their catching, especially at close-in field, has been below par.
Kohli — who leads from the front whether in batting, fielding, running between wickets or maintaining high standards of fitness levels — also is the leader of a pack which is yet to get its act right when it comes to catching in slips or gully or short-leg or silly point. He dropped one in the second innings of the Galle Test but luckily for India, Upul Tharanga couldn’t make most of that reprieve.
In the second Test, which India won by an innings and 53 runs, it was once again their poor catching that stood out in an otherwise dominant performance. Kohli had dropped Angelo Mathews at gully in the first innings on his personal score of zero and he went on to make 26. The skipper spilled one more in the second, this time of Dilruwan Perera on 4 off Jadeja. While these two drops didn’t prove costly, KL Rahul spilling one at short-leg on the fourth morning allowed Dimuth Karunaratne to not only complete his century but also frustrate Indian bowlers for more than two hours.
There was another notable miss. Shikhar Dhawan spilling Kusal Mendis at mid-on turned out to be a costly blunder. The right-hander was on one when he was dropped and he went on to slam 109 more on Saturday. While India do possess a world-class slip catcher in Ajinkya Rahane, who is as safe as a house in that cordon, the same can’t be said of others.
Kohli admitted it was an area of concern for the team. “Yeah, that is certainly an area that we want to keep improving in,” he said after the second Test. “I would say that on a pitch like that where it is getting slower, sometimes you end up standing ahead because you want to pick up catches from the front. And then when one big shot is played and the ball is bowled quick then you suddenly look like you are not in position. It is a very tricky thing to figure out. Maybe we will have to figure out a certain distance that we just stay in, no matter if the ball falls in front of us or something like that,” he offered.
India have been trying different combinations for more than a year now but they are yet to find a settled unit to man those positions. From time to time, India have used R Ashwin, Dhawan, Rahul, M Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Karun Nair and Kohli himself but barring Rahane, no other player has displayed the required suppleness, the alacrity and the composure.
“Specialists are always nice,” Kohli continued. “KL (Rahul) and Pujara are our close-in specialists. Pujara does gully for spinners as well but then he takes on short-leg and KL hasn’t done as much of that practice as Pujara does. So it becomes tricky. I try to chip in but when I drop catches, it looks bad. We will have to figure out who stands in those positions consistently and keep those guys there for longer periods. I think that is the solution going forward.”