Close-in catching a concern for India

For all their progress as one of the best fielding units in the world in all three formats of the game, India’s catching, especially by the close-in field in the Tests, has remained a concern for some time now.

Even in the just-concluded three Test series against Sri Lanka, India grassed many offers; some easy and some not so but the mistakes didn’t go unnoticed despite their 3-0 demolition of the hosts. The bloopers against Lanka, however, weren’t one-off. Even during the home series against England and later Australia, close-in catching left a lot to be desired.              

“There were a few lapses during the England and Australia series,” admitted team’s fielding coach R Sridhar on Saturday. “We saw all the videos and we saw what we could work on in terms of the close-in fielders; in terms of the technique of the close-in fielders. We addressed that during our preparation phase during the first seven days in Sri Lanka. I am glad it paid off… (Cheteshwar) Pujara, KL Rahul and Ajinkya (Rahane) plucking some great catches close-in and Virat (Kohli) himself picking up some good catches close-in,” he pointed out.

While they did pull off some good catches, there were also some silly drops. Kohli himself was guilty of letting a few slip away from him.

The issue is, with the exception of Rahane, India have not been able to identify their core for the close-in field. It’s particularly so when it comes to slips. Sridhar blamed it on lack of availability of a set of players for a prolonged length that hinders his plans to choose specific players for specific positions.

“It all depends on the personnel we have,” he said when asked if India are still in the process of getting the core of their close-in fielders. “We really can’t decide ‘oh, these three are going to stand in these positions!’ There are a lot of variables involved. Somebody might get injured, somebody might not be part of team. We take that call only once the team is decided. Once we get the 15 in hand, Virat, Ravi (Shastri) bhai and I sit down, have a chat and figure the people manning key positions. We try and make our practices as specific to positions and we go into player specifics too,” he explained.

But barring Shikhar Dhawan and M Vijay most of the players that man these positions have been available continuously. Kohli and Pujara haven’t missed a Test since the New Zealand series while Rahul has played nine of last ten matches. Rahane missed just two matches during England series but has played all matches on either side of them. An otherwise safe-fielder, only Ashwin no longer stands in slips due to fear of injury to his fingers. Agreed, it’s impossible to have every player present for all Tests but that can’t be an excuse for not being able to develop a set close-in field.

India take great pride in their bench strengths when it comes to batting and bowling departments and why shouldn’t it be same when it comes to close-in catchers. The fact that they even have a specialist fielding coach explains the importance of that aspect of the game.

Just like how batting becomes one’s muscle memory, catching should also be likewise. It should not take more than a few practice sessions or a session or two in actual match situations to fall back into the groove.