Fielding coach Ramakrishnan Sridhar has insisted on an improved performance from India during Saturday's second ODI against New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland.
India dominated with bat and ball during the recent T20I series win over the New Zealanders. Their fielding and catching, however, was relatively poor throughout – and during this week's first ODI at Seddon Park in Hamilton.
“It's something we should definitely work on. I think, post the World Cup, we had a good series in the West Indies, then the West Indies series at home is where we really dropped, we were average, to say the least. So from then on, we are trying to get better,” said Sridhar.
“Definitely we haven't lived up to the standards as we did in the World Cup or even in the build-up to the World Cup in the last couple of years. It's something we should definitely work on.”
Captain Virat Kolhi's run-out of half-centurion Henry Nicholls in Hamilton typified how good India can be in the field. Wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav, though, dropped eventual centurion Ross Taylor. Taylor had only struck 10 runs at the time.
About Yadav's fielding…
“These things happen, we can't look too deeply into that. But yes, definitely New Zealand is a difficult high-catching country. Having said that, it's not an excuse, that catch should have been taken. Maybe Yadav was thinking about his previous over, it could be anything,” added Sridhar.
“It cannot be a technical aspect at all. Or, you never know – we were speaking to Kuldeep about his fielding, we spoke about it, so we are trying to get better. We were average, there's no doubt about it. And we can get better.
“We do monitor their workloads, so we will be lying to ourselves if we say they are fresh as a daisy. They are not, because they are travelling and playing games. But the current fitness levels of this team is really good. So that, in turn, helps to recover from the workload or recover from the fatigue quickly, be fit on the park.”
